SOLDIER of the Planet
by Turd Ferguson
Summary: What begins as a rebellion against an evil corporation explodes into something much more. What erupts goes beyond imagination. Relive the adventure as only I can tell it. A FFVII novelization
1. The City of Nightmares

**SOLDIER of the Planet**

_Chapter 1: The City of Nightmares_

Alone in a dark alley, a young girl in a bright pink dress gazed deeply into a blazing fire. If one were to have peered down the alley at her, they would have seen her lips moving, but with no sound escaping. She nodded, shook her head, and whispered something to herself. With a sigh, she got up off the ground, brushed the loose, wet gravel off her knees and picked up the woven basket of flowers she carried.

She headed to the mouth of the alley and was just about to cross the street when a pair of loud motorcycles flew past her, pouring steam and rotten gas fumes into the air. The girl wrinkled her nose up at the horrible smell and coughed. Several more people brushed past her as they moved along the sidewalk, and a rusted out, old, blue car followed the motorcycles. She wondered why she tried to bring color to this black city selling flowers, when she realized she had just answered her own question.

Far above her, belching noxious green clouds of burnt mako energy, stood the massive Shinra Tower, surrounded by the eight mako reactors that sucked energy out of the living earth and converted it into usable electricity. The huge column of glass and steel hung ominously over the city like an angry parent standing over a grumpy child; looming and imposing.

And thus, the greatest adventure of all time, for the life of the planet, began.

* * *

Meanwhile, across the next sector at the train station, a train had just come screeching to a halt. The coolant systems on the engines and wheels sprung to life, bathing the hot parts with chilly foam, filling the air with the smell of burning rubber. The two guards at the station coughed and spat, trying to wave the stink away.

The first guard suddenly fell back against the wall and slumped to the ground as a heavy leather boot smashed into his nose. The other guard saw his buddy fall to the ground and a tall, slender man jump off the train. Before he could react though, he felt a pair of slender arms grab his helmet and flip him over onto the ground. He saw a third form wearing blue overalls move his huge weight onto his chest and clobber him senseless.

When both guards were down, a huge black man dressed in a loose vest and worn out pants stomped out from between the engine and first car. He looked around for the signs of any more guards, and when he saw none, he motioned for the others to go on ahead of him.

"Come on, newcomer!" he snapped in his gruff voice. From the other side of the train came a bright flash of silver light followed by two screams. The ex-SOLDIER, dressed in his purple military outfit, stepped out from between the two cars and shrugged as he swung his massive sword over his shoulder and snapped it into its magnetic locks on his back. "Business as usual," he said flatly, running his hands through his spiky blonde hair. The black man snorted. "Yeah, whatever. Jes' follow me." He took off down the same way the first three had gone, followed by the ex-SOLDIER.

After going through the checkout station, the ex-SOLDIER found the first three in front of a security lock. The heavy guy in blue overalls was looking around nervously, while the girl was squatting in front of the panel with a tool pouch, trying to disarm it. The tall, slender man nearly fell to the ground when the guy in the blue overalls backed into him.

"Damn it Wedge! Get your fat ass off of me," the tall, slender man said.

"I'm sorry Biggs, but someone is coming," said Wedge with a look of concern on his face.

Biggs peered down the alley to see a form heading towards them. Fear started to grip him, especially when he saw the silhouette of the huge sword the shadow was carrying. Fear turned to relief however, when the form stepped into the light and it was the ex-SOLDIER who was joining them on this mission.

"Wow, you sure are SOLDIER material all right!" Biggs said with a grin. "It's not every day you find one in a group like AVALANCHE, though."

The girl stopped for a second and craned her neck around to face Biggs. "SOLDIER? Biggs, I thought they were the enemy!"

Biggs shook his head. "Not this time, Jessie. He's on our side, and for some good money too, I hear. What's your name, friend?" The ex-SOLDIER gave Biggs a cold, hard stare. Biggs suddenly felt very open and exposed, but he managed to keep his nervous smile. "Cloud," the ex-SOLDIER said sharply. "And I don't care what your names are. Once this job is done, I'm outta here."

Just then the black man came stomping back into view from a side exit and glared at the four members of AVALANCHE sternly. "What the hell are you all doin'!" he snapped. "I thought I told you never to move in a group! Hurry up with that door and get moving'!"

Jessie snipped the wire in half as soon as the black man yelled at her, and the door sparked for a second before sliding open. AVALANCHE ran into the corridor, except for the black man, who stopped Cloud with a hand on his shoulder and frowned. "I heard the others. Ex-SOLDIER, huh? I don't trust you..."

"Barret! Hurry it up!" Biggs yelled from inside.

"Keep yer goddamn pants on!" Barret roared back. He turned back to face Cloud and scowled. "Still, we got an important job to do tonight, so if you got any ideas 'bout turning on us..." Barret raised his right arm to reveal the large Gatling gun that had been grafted to his right forearm. "I'm gonna be the guy who wastes yer ass." Cloud simply gave Barret a hard stare, and followed him into the corridor.

The catwalk above Sector 8 led into the mako reactor, but also branched off the side. Wedge set himself in front of the large door labeled 'EMERGENCY EXIT' and cast a nervous glance around. Cloud followed the others into the reactor entrance.

Cloud saw Jessie and Biggs next to a security door again with Barret watching the entrance. Barret saw Cloud approaching them. The young pup had gotten this far without turning on us, Barret thought to himself. He knew that the chances of getting Cloud to join AVALANCHE full-time were probably slim to none, but having a former Shinra employee in their ranks would give them some great intelligence on the inner workings of the company. Barret realized though, he did have a trump card waiting for them back at their hideout. If the kid knows what we're fighting for, maybe his conscience would make him join our ranks, Barret thought to himself.

"Yo, this your first time in a reactor?" he asked Cloud when he came in. The ex-SOLDIER shrugged. "No, after all, I did work for the Shinra, y'know."

"Mako's the lifeblood of the planet," Barret explained, "but the Shinra keep suckin' it out with these weird machines, and..."

"I'm not here for a lecture," Cloud snapped. "Let's just get a move on and go home." Barret's ears turned scarlet, but he nodded to Jessie, who swiped a key card through the magnetic lock and swung the door open. She swiped another lock with the card, which led to an elevator. Jessie boarded the elevator, and Cloud and Barret followed, leaving Biggs behind.

As the elevator dropped down to the service levels of the reactor, Barret spoke up again. "Little by little, the reactors will drain out all the life. And that'll be that."

Cloud shook his head and gave Barret the same hard stare. "It's not my problem," he said flatly. Barret snarled and punched the wall. Who did this little freak think he was dissin' on his ideals like this? "The planet's dyin', Cloud!" he yelled.

"I don't care," the ex-SOLIDER sighed. "All I care about is finishing this job before the guards show up." If the elevator hadn't stopped right there, and if Cloud hadn't jumped off at the last second, Barret just might have whacked the mercenary Cloud right there. Barret jumped off the elevator and left Jessie behind to cover their escape.

Cloud and Barret crossed the platform, and then bounded down a set of stairs until they reached a twisting set of stairs and ladders that ran down to a thick pipe. Across the pipe was a thin ladder that led down from the pipe to a long catwalk. The narrow trail hung over a bubbling, steaming pit of raw mako energy. The smell from the stuff wafted up through the entire chamber and exited through the huge hole in the ceiling, filling the once clean air with toxins of pure mako.

At the end of the catwalk lay the mako valve, which controlled the flow of mako from the planet to a degree. This was AVALANCHE's target. Once this thing was gone, the entire reactor would go up with it. Barret shoved a black bag into Cloud's arms and pointed him at the valve. "You set the bomb," he snapped.

Cloud spun around and jabbed Barret with the bag. "Shouldn't you do it?"

Barret hurled the bag at Cloud, sending the ex-SOLDIER staggering back. "Jes' do it!" he roared. "I gotta make sure you don't pull nothin'!" Grumbling, Cloud took the bomb out of the black bag and stuck it to the valve.

_Wait!_ A voice shouted in his head. Cloud stopped punching in numbers and looked around for the source of the voice. A sharp, stinging pain suddenly ripped through his head and made his eyes water. A thin red haze swept over his vision as he crumpled to his knees and grabbed the sides of his head in agony. _This isn't a normal reactor!_

"Hey, what're you doing over there?" Barret asked. "You okay?"

Slowly, the voice and pain fled from Cloud. After his head stopped ringing, he crawled to his feet and nodded. Where was he...? Right. The bomb.

Cloud hit the final number on the access panel and set the bomb's timer. "This thing's set, let's go!" he shouted. Suddenly, the klaxons went off and a bright red light flooded the room. Barret grumbled to himself as he spun around, looking at the catwalk. A huge shadow suddenly fell upon the both of them, causing both men to look. "What the hell is that," Barret screamed at the top of his lungs.

From the shadows above descended a huge mechanical scorpion, twin rifles set on top of its head and a sizzling laser on its tail. As soon as its legs hit the floor, it turned its sights on Barret and targeted him. Barret responded by popping open the clip to the gun grafted onto his right arm and loading it full of shells. Cloud, meanwhile, pulled his massive sword from its magnetic locks on his back and held it out before him. He hated the way the blade shook in the hilt; the screws were coming loose. He'd have to find someone to fix that someday.

Barret let loose with a wave of ammo from his Gatling gun, but the shells bounced off the guard scorpion's tough armored hide. Again and again Barret fired, until his clip was empty. Cursing, he stepped back. "Shit, this thing's tough! We gotta find some way to punch a hole through its armor so's I can put the hurt on it!"

"Leave that to me," Cloud said sternly.

Suddenly, the green orb in Cloud's sword flared to life. Swinging the sword in front of him, Cloud reached deep inside the materia for the fires that burned within. Grasping onto them tightly, he swung his sword back into its magnetic locks and thrust his fists forward. Shimmering green light burst from the ground at his feet, and his hair rose into the air. From the skies above, a thin spear of lightning shot down through the roof and crashed into the guard scorpion, blowing a huge chunk of its armor to shrapnel.

"Woo boy!" Barret cheered. "That's some handy stuff you got there. But lemme show you how we do things in AVALANCHE!"

Barret removed a shell that was easily the size of his neck and popped his gun open. Shoving the shell inside, he locked his chambers shut and sighted the guard scorpion. Just as he was about to fire, though, the mechanical monster spun the end of its tail and let loose with his laser. A thick beam of blue light ripped through the catwalk, sending flecks of molten steel everywhere. Backing up, both Cloud and Barret found themselves about to tip over the edge of the world and into the steaming pool of mako.

"I hope you got a backup plan," Cloud said flatly.

The guard scorpion advanced on Cloud and Barret and stood over them, each rifle choosing a target. Barret scowled and aimed his gun at the cameras of the robot. His forehead became dotted with sweat as the targeting on his gun flicked on and sighted the guard scorpion less than four feet from Barret. He braced himself as a large ball of flame burst to life at the end of his gun barrels. "Target this, ya sorry excuse for a blender!" he roared.

Screaming, Barret launched the shell at the guard scorpion. The robot took the brunt of the blast in the face and was flung back against the edge of the catwalk. The blasted section slowly began to peel away from the solid catwalk, and the guard scorpion clung to the edge for dear life. Barret and Cloud ran to the edge and looked down at the robot, whose front had been blown to shreds. Its cameras hung in tangled piles of junk, while its two guns were gone completely. "Barret, can you do that again?" Cloud asked. Barret snarled and shook his head. "Man, how many of those d'ya think I can carry? That was the big one."

Cloud sighed. "I was afraid of that." Raising his sword high above his head, he jumped down on the robot's face and swung, severing a claw. Cloud scrambled to the other edge of the guard scorpion as it lurched to the left and chopped the second claw. The guard scorpion plummeted to the mako pool far below, leaving Cloud dangling by one of its still grasping claws. The ex-SOLDIER flung his sword up onto the catwalk and had Barret help him up.

"Ha! We ain't gonna have too much trouble from him anymore," Barret cheered. "Cloud, how much longer have we got on that bomb?"

"Well, I set it for a nice long time, so right now I'd say about..." The bomb beeped and clicked as the display jumped down from a half hour to ten minutes. "About that long." Exchanging glances with each other, both Barret and Cloud spun around and fled for the exit.

Up on the floor above, Cloud spotted Jessie, who was pulling on her leg and shouting for help. When Cloud came up to investigate, she blushed and grinned. "My...ah, foot got caught..." she stammered. Cloud grabbed her ankle, twisted, and pulled. Jessie shook her foot to get the circulation going, smiled, and flew up the stairs to the elevator.

After Cloud and Barret got in, she looked at the two of them and grimaced. "What happened to you two?" she asked. Both of them looked at her and said, "Long story." Jessie blinked, and didn't ask again.

The elevator dinged happily as the doors slid open. Cloud looked down at the watch under his bronze bangle and made a choked yelp. "One minute...and it's going fast!"

"Shit!" Barret roared. "Let's scram!"

Barret barreled past a startled Biggs, who was grabbed by Cloud and dragged outside, followed by Jessie. At the entrance to the reactor, Wedge was still waiting by the large sewer doors. He gave a deep sigh when he saw Barret and flung the doors open, making hasty get moving motions. He jumped inside, followed by Barret and Biggs. Cloud had to push Jessie along before the reactor exploded in her face.

All across the vast city of Midgar the explosion could be heard. For miles around, even in Kalm, it was seen. The massive fortress of steel and mako erupted with an earth shaking explosion and a fireball that rose for miles into the sky, lighting up the perpetual night that hung over Midgar. Sector 8 blacked out, and high in the Shinra Tower that loomed over Midgar, President Shinra watched the fireworks from his top floor office. A stern look crossed his face has he stubbed his cigar out on the window.

* * *

In the sewers, Jessie was bent over a pile of moldy rubble, setting a smaller charge. Wedge shifted nervously and managed a small smile. "That should keep the planet going...for at least a little longer." Barret simply nodded.

"Okay, everyone get back!" Jessie shouted. She pushed everyone else into the back of the tunnel as the charge went off. A thick wall of fire burst to life on the trash in the sewers, forcing Cloud to make a running leap from the tunnel and into a back alley. Barret followed him, followed by Jessie and Biggs, and finally, Wedge.

Barret counted heads and nodded again. "Awright, we done good, team. Meet up at the train station, an' don't be late!" The members of AVALANCHE nodded and scurried away into the darkness. Just as Barret was about to leave, though, he felt a hand grab his shoulder. The big man turned around to face Cloud, who was about to ask a question. Barret cut him off, though. "Look, if this's about the money, save it 'till we get back to the hideout!" He ran off, leaving Cloud alone in the alley.

Cloud plodded up the stairs leading out and hit a bundle of confusion and panic. Several stores and tents had been shattered, leaving their residents out in the streets. He saw rotted posters for the play "Loveless", which was supposed to be a smash hit. That was why it had been playing for forty years straight. The last actress to play the lead, though, was caught in an apartment fire.

Cloud bumped into a girl standing in the street and stumbled back. He caught her by the wrist just as she was about to fall, though, and set her back upright. Smiling, she dusted the front of her pink dress off and picked up her flower basket. "Ah...thanks. I guess I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

Cloud shrugged. "No...It was my fault."

They stared at each other for a minute, not saying anything. Cloud was instantly lost in her shimmering green eyes that hung in front of him like crystal pools. Her voice was sweet music, and her smile was a blinding light in the darkness of this city of nightmares. Cloud racked his brain for something to say, and came up with..."Uh...you don't see too many flowers around here."

The girl smiled and picked a bright pink one from her basket. "Oh, you like them? They're only a gil."

Cloud dug around in his pocket and pulled a small silver coin out that was split almost down the middle by three ridges. He let it slide through his fingers for a minute, forgetting why he had it out until she spoke again. "Well...? Are you going to buy one?" Cloud jumped and handed her the coin. Smiling, she handed Cloud the pink flower. "Maybe I'll see you again sometime. Midgar's not as big as it seems." With that, she turned and walked away.

Cloud's head was swimming. Where had she come from? Creatures like her didn't exist, least of all in places like Midgar. Still, there she was, or had been anyway. The ex-SOLDIER twirled the flower in his fingers and sighed. The others were waiting for him at the train station.

Cloud spun on his heel and ran through the downtown square that was covered in AVALANCHE fliers and anti-Shinra propaganda. Adding insult to injury, AVALANCHE had spread their logo in peeling blue spray paint across a Shinra billboard along with another anti-Shinra message.

Uptown, though, was an entirely different scene. Well built brick houses with lush shrubbery lined the clean cobblestone streets, with black metal fences adding to the calm and well placed scene. The streets were slightly damp with the evening chill and yesterday's rain, and a thin fog hung around the street lights. Cloud sighed. He wished he could have lived a normal life like this, with a normal wife, normal kids, having a normal job; the life of a mercenary wasn't the best. Not like he had thought five years ago.

His train of thought was interrupted by a sudden shotgun blast from behind that tore a chunk out of the street. Jumping in surprise, Cloud spun around to face two Shinra guards in blue uniforms holding assault weapons. "Hey, that's the guy from the warning we got! Blow his head off!"

Cloud backed up into three more guards, who grabbed him by the shoulders and held him tight. The first two approached with a pair of sticks, but never got the chance to use them. Cloud kicked up and slammed his feet into the front two guard's ribs. He then brought his fists together and drove his elbows into the guts of the guards behind him. The last got a roundhouse kick to the head and hit the ground, moaning.

The ex-SOLDIER made a break for freedom, but was stopped again by three more guards. Backing away, he looked behind him and found the edge of a bridge laid with railroad tracks. One of the guards coughed and pointed his weapon at Cloud. "Th...That's as far as you go!" he shouted.

"I don't have time to be dealing with you clowns," Cloud snapped. Just then, he heard the whistle of the train blowing. He snarled when he realized that the train was pulling out of the station! And it was a long hike back to Sector 7.

There was only one thing left to do. Cloud waved his hands in an elaborate series of motions and began to mumble. The guards immediately backed up and lowered their weapons. "Crap...he's got materia on 'im! Watch out!"

Cloud smirked to himself. It had worked! Now, if only the train would arrive on cue.

The whistle blew again, closer than ever. Cloud hopped up onto the edge of the bridge and waved a fond farewell to the stunned guards. As the train passed beneath him the ex-SOLDIER jumped onto the speeding train and hunkered down low as it passed beneath another bridge and rapidly descended into the slums of Midgar, far beneath the upper levels of the city.

* * *

"Cloud never came," Wedge sighed.

Biggs looked out the window at the speeding wall and folded his arms across his chest. "Cloud...do you think he was killed?"

"No way!" Barret snapped. "The guy was in SOLDIER, remember? He'll take care of himself. 'Sides, he's got his cash and his girl to come home to."

"Yeah, but do you think he'll really fight to the end with AVALANCHE?" Biggs asked. Barret thumped a crate next to him and grumbled. "What do I look like, a mind reader? How the hell am I supposed to know?"

Wedge nodded. He dug his hands into his pockets and looked up at a scowling Barret. "Hey, what about our money?" he asked. Barret thumped on the crate again and shot a look at Wedge that made him wish he had never said anything. "Uh, never mind..." Wedge muttered softly.

Jessie perked her ears up at the sound of something falling onto the roof. Looking up, she followed the sounds of heavy footsteps thudding across the ceiling and over to the door. She got up from leaning on a box and was about to slide open the doors when they flew open by themselves. Jumping back in surprise, she made room for Cloud, who swung in and made a neat landing in front of Barret. AVALANCHE jumped to attention and stared in disbelief.

"Looks like I'm late," Cloud said smugly. One could literally see the smoke pouring out of Barret's ears as he punched a hole clean through the crate. "You're damn right you're late! Comin' in here, makin' a big show like you don't care 'bout nothin' but yerself!"

Cloud looked up at Barret and chuckled. "Ah...so you were worried about me! You big, squishy lug, you."

Barret roared and kicked Cloud, who slid to the side and grinned. "That does it! I'm takin' that outta your money, hotshot! We're movin' out, so this time, keep up!" With that, he spun around on a booted heel and stomped angrily out of the car and into the first passenger's area.

Wedge smiled at Cloud after Barret left. "Hey, nice job back at the reactor," he said, and followed the big man out. Biggs clapped Cloud on the back and rubbed the back of his neck. "Barret's okay, but you shouldn't rile him like that. Watch yourself." He followed Wedge.

Jessie put an arm on Cloud's shoulder and spun him around. She pulled a cloth from one of her many pockets and began to rub at Cloud's face. When he started to complain, she snapped his jaw shut and grinned. "You're covered in soot," she said. After several minutes of wiping, she put the cloth away and smiled. "Now you're clean. And...Thanks for helping me out at the reactor. I owe you." She slowly made her way out to the passenger car.

Cloud shut the door and sighed. After that, he slid open the door to the next car and stepped inside.

_Attention all passengers, Midgar rail system number five will be arriving in Sector 7 in exactly five minutes. The current time is 11:43. Thank you for riding with Shinra, and have a nice day._

The PA bleeped off, and Cloud looked around for a seat. Finding few unoccupied, he opted to stand next to a window and watch the world go by. Jessie called him, though, and sat him next to the rail map. "I love this kinda stuff...bombs and monitors. All the flashy stuff." As the green wire map flicked on, she grinned.

"This is a map of Midgar at a 1/10,000 scale. The top area lies fifty meters above the slums, and is home to the 'haves' of Midgar...that is, people with real houses. The mako reactors also sit on the top plates, along with the center Shinra plate. Each of the eight plates is held up by a tall support pillar in the center of the slums, including the Shinra plate, which has a huge pillar in the middle of Midgar. The train we're on now goes around the center pillar and most other pillars."

"Phew...this is next..."

"At each sector there is a system ID check station. It checks the identity of everyone on board by means of a special magnetic card that is scanned and cross referenced with the Shinra central data banks in the Shinra Tower. Each sector also used to have a name, but it's been so long that nobody remembers them. Instead, we refer to them as numbered sectors. That's the kind of place this is."

The map flipped off, and the car was bathed in a soft red light. "Speak of the devil..." Jessie muttered. "This's one of the ID checkpoints. Anyone could tell that we're suspicious, though, so I've supplied everyone with fake IDs." The lights shut off, and Wedge began grumbling. "This sucks...this's why I hate the dark. I'm seein' spots."

"Quit your moaning," Biggs said sleepily. "Besides, we're almost home."

Cloud moved back to the window and looked up at the bottom of a plate that loomed far overhead. Barret snorted as he looked with Cloud and jumped from his seat. "That damn plate...if it wasn't there, we could see the sky. This place ain't got no day or night, y'know. An' it's because of that goddamn 'pizza' that the people in the slums are sufferin'!"

Cloud blinked, but didn't take his eyes off the pillar. "Then why doesn't everybody move onto the plate?" he asked. Barret shrugged and turned his back on the ex-SOLIDER. "Dunno," he said softly. "Maybe 'cause they ain't got no money. Or maybe because they love their land, no matter how polluted it gets."

The ex-SOLIDER nodded. "I guess it's a lot like this train. It can only go where its rails can take it."

Barret turned around and put on a wry grin. "Well, I never expected anything like that outta you." Cloud glanced up at Barret, who smiled back and shook his head. "Man, you jes' fulla suprises." Cloud looked back out the window and said nothing. In the car that sped towards Sector 7, the only sound that was heard was the wheels slamming against the tracks, echoing through the hollow steel cavern of the Midgar slums.


	2. Promises Kept

_Chapter 2: Promises Kept_

The train came to a screeching halt at the station, filling the air with clouds of steam and dust. Shaking his head and coughing, the guard opened the door and watched as the flood of people, including AVALANCHE, burst from inside and ran home. Barret called the team together, and they gathered around the streetlight, just out of earshot.

"Okay, we did good tonight, but don't none of y'all be scared of that explosion," Barret explained. "Cause the next one's gonna be bigger than that! Everybody split up and meet back at the hideout!" AVALANCHE burst apart, leaving Cloud by himself again.

Cloud slowly made his way east past the train station and came across the fence that marked off the Sector 7 pillar. The massive steel and concrete tower rose high into the air and held up the plate high above Cloud's head. Having such a huge thing not too far above him wasn't all that much of a comforting thought, but there wasn't too much he could do about it. Not unless the plate was taken out. But what were the chances of that?

Past the pillar lay the slums of Sector 7. Right in the middle sat the "Seventh Heaven", AVALANCHE's base of operations. A group of scared bar patrons cowered outside not too far from a scowling Barret, who stood guard at the foot of the small stairs leading up to the saloon doors. "Cloud, get your spiky ass over here!" he snapped. "Gwan and get inside. We can't have too many people noticing us." Cloud bumped past Barret and marched inside.

Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie had already sat down and begun eating. They managed not to notice Cloud as he stepped inside, but the little girl sitting on the bar did. Crying out for her daddy, she stopped when she saw Cloud and turned around to sob in the corner.

"Marlene!" the owner said, stepping out from behind the bar. "Aren't you going to say hello to Cloud?"

Marlene sniffled and shook her head. Tifa Lockhart slowly stood up again and turned to face Cloud with a warm smile. Tifa's Seventh Heaven was the best, and only, bar in all of Sector 7, and the owner herself was a sight to behold. She would never admit to it, but Tifa was the object of many desires in Sector 7. Well-rounded curves and a pair of bright brown eyes screamed to Cloud as he watched her half-saunter over to him and welcome him home. "I'm glad to see that you're safe," she said. "Did you fight with Barret?"

Cloud sighed and scratched the back of his head. Tifa put her hands behind her back and shifted nervously. "I should have guessed," she mumbled. "He's always picking on people, and you've been getting into fights since you were little." Cloud half-turned away, and that was when Tifa noticed the small splash of pink in his belt. Grabbing the flower, she put it to her face and inhaled gently. "Cloud…a flower? Oh, it smells wonderful. I think I should fill the store with flowers."

"No big deal," Cloud stammered.

The ex-SOLDIER turned around just in time to leap up on a nearby table as Barret came pounding through the doors and screeched to a halt. Marlene's face lit up as her father lifted her high into the air and set her on his shoulder. "Hey, what've you been doin while I was gone, huh?" Barret asked, smiling. Marlene kicked and squealed with glee as Barret bounced around the room. Cloud held back the urge to snicker.

Turning around, his smile dropped into a low scowl. "Awright, get in here, fools. We're startin the meeting!" He stomped over to the pinball machine and pulled the lever, triggering the elevator that dropped down below ground level. The rest of AVALANCHE followed, leaving Cloud upstairs with Tifa.

"Sit down for a minute," she said, sticking the flower in her hair. Cloud shrugged and took a seat on a stool. "How about…something to drink?"

"Something hard," Cloud muttered. Chuckling, Tifa spun around and fixed one of her famous cocktails. Cloud snatched the drink off the napkin and swallowed half of it in one gulp. He was more worn than he had thought.

"I really am glad to see that you're all right," Tifa said, resting her elbows on the bar. Cloud peered at her through the bottom of his glass and raised an eyebrow. "What's with you?" he asked. "That wasn't even a tough job."

Tifa shrugged, but still managed to smile. "Make sure to get your pay from Barret," she said. Now this was just weird, Cloud thought. Why was she so tight all of a sudden? "Don't worry," he said, "once I get my pay, I'm outta here." Dropping the shot glass back onto the napkin, he was about to head downstairs when Tifa stopped him again.

"Are you feeling all right? You look a little tired." Cloud shrugged and pulled on the lever, watching Tifa watching him as he descended into the basement of the Seventh Heaven.

AVALANCHE didn't pay any attention to him when he came down, least of all, Barret. He was busy throwing punches at a worn, black punching bag with the Shinra logo sprayed on it. Cloud looked around, inhaling the stale smell of beer and various sauces that hung in the air. Posters and fliers were hung from the fenced walls, and a huge TV was set in the far corner. Jessie even had her own computer set up next to the TV, and she was busy clicking away on the Shintranet.

"Yo, Cloud!" Barret shouted, pushing the bag up against the wall. Cloud spun around to face a sweaty, red-faced Barret and blinked. "Was there anyone from SOLDIER fightin us today?"

Cloud shrugged. "If there was…you wouldn't be standing here now. They're Shinra's elite fighting force."

Barret harrumphed and spun his gun barrels. "Hey, don't go thinkin you're all that cause you was in SOLDIER!" he shouted. Cloud simply turned around and said nothing. "Yeah, maybe you're tough, maybe all them guys in SOLDIER are! But just remember that your spiky ass is workin for AVALANCHE now! So don't get no ideas about stayin with the Shinra!"

The ex-SOLDER spun back around and snarled. His glowing blue eyes were the color of a sharp blizzard, and they sliced right through Barret. "Stay with the Shinra! Look, you asked me a question and I answered it…that's all!" He stepped up to the big man and poked him hard in the ribs. "I'm goin upstairs. I wanna talk about my money."

"Money!" Barret roared, and began to beat the punching bag relentlessly. Cloud was about to leave when the elevator came downstairs with Tifa riding on it. She had heard the whole thing, and stood in front of Cloud with pleading eyes and a tight look on her face. "Cloud…don't leave yet."

"Let im go, Tifa!" Barret snapped. "Looks like he still misses the Shinra!"

Cloud scowled and looked around again. All of AVALANCHE was staring in awe at Cloud and Barret, who seemed to be on the verge of killing each other at a moment's notice. "I don't care about Shinra or SOLDIER. But don't get me wrong. I don't care about AVALANCHE or the planet for that matter!" he snapped as he stomped onto the elevator and nearly broke the lever.

Cloud kicked over a chair or two and tightened his gloved fists until his knuckles cracked painfully. Before he could leave, though, he heard the elevator come back upstairs. He didn't have to turn around to know that it was Tifa standing behind him. "Cloud, go back down there and make up to everyone," she said. "Don't go…not yet."

The ex-SOLDIER slowly shook his head and sighed. "Tifa…I can't stay. I'll give you an address you can forward the money to later, and…"

"So, that's it!" she snapped. "You're just going to walk out and leave your childhood friend behind?" Cloud turned around and gave her a blank stare. She put her hands behind her back and dug into the floor with the toe of a boot. "You forgot the promise, too," she said softly.

Cloud blinked, and Tifa only nodded. "So…you really did forget. Remember, Cloud? It was seven years ago…the well..."

* * *

_Aw, who am I kidding?_ Cloud asked himself. _She hates me._

"Sorry I'm late," Tifa said, poking her head around a corner. She marched over next to Cloud and sat down, smoothing out her blue skirt. She swung her legs anxiously and waited for him to say something.

Cloud wrapped his ponytail around his shoulder and chewed on it for a minute before dropping it again and sighing. "Come this spring…I'm leaving for Midgar."

Tifa wasn't surprised. She stopped kicking and leaned back against the well. "All the boys are leaving our town," she said softly. "There's more jobs out there, dad says."

But Cloud shook his head. Standing up, he looked up into the starry sky and clenched a fist. "I'm not gonna find a job," he said. "I'm gonna join SOLDIER! I'll be the best there is, just like Sephiroth!" Sephiroth was a name well-known in little towns like this. Among the elite fighters of SOLDIER, Sephiroth was the best of the best. He had no equal anywhere in the world. Stories said that he has never bled, or shed tears. Every boy in the world wanted to be just like him, but few ever saw him anywhere.

Legends say that his great curved blade, the Masamune, was forged by a master craftsman from Wutai who folded the metal exactly one thousand times with a magic hammer using special mythril from the mines. Others said the sword was, in fact, an actual extension of Sephiroth himself. Some still said that he was an angel in disguise, or perhaps, the devil himself. Whatever Sephiroth was, he was powerful. Very powerful.

"The Great Sephiroth…" Tifa mumbled. "Will you be in the papers if you do well?" Cloud had moved up on top of the well, and was still looking up into the clear, starry night, his thoughts far away in Midgar. "I might," he said distantly.

The two sat together like that for a moment, waiting for the other to make a move. Tifa looked up at Cloud and wondered where he had wandered off to. "Hey, I got an idea," she said, standing up. "Let's make a promise." Cloud's mind snapped back down to earth, and he looked down at Tifa curiously. "Umm…if I'm ever in trouble, I want you to come and save me."

"What?" Cloud asked, his heart leaping into his throat.

"I mean, whenever I'm in a bind, my hero will come and rescue me!" Tifa said, smiling. "I want to experience that at least once." Cloud simply gave her a blank stare. "Cloud…promise me that you'll be my hero."

Cloud looked down at Tifa for a minute, then back up into the sky. Far above, a bright star shot across the blackness and vanished. The night sky was filled to the brim with shimmering stars that reflected in Cloud's bright blue eyes, and he had a small idea of what Tifa was talking about. "Okay, Tifa," he said softly. "I promise."

* * *

"Remember now?" Tifa asked, her big brown eyes sparkling. Cloud ripped himself away from her penetrating gaze and shook his head. "Tifa…I'm not a hero. I can't keep the promise. I'm sorry…"

Just then, Barret stomped back upstairs and threw a bag of money at Cloud's feet. "Hey, mister big-time SOLDIER, here's yer pay." Cloud picked up the sack of fifteen hundred gil and leafed through it, his face blank. He looked up at Barret, who gave his customary scowl in return. Tifa, though, stood utterly defeated and on the verge of breaking down completely. Maybe he couldn't keep the promise, but he couldn't make Tifa upset, either.

"This is it?" Cloud said, smirking. "This is my pay? This isn't jack shit. Don't make me laugh." Barret's eyes widened, and he took a step closer to Cloud. "You got the next mission lined up, Barret? I'll do it for another three thousand."

Barret roared and kicked a toppled chair. Tifa, though, bent Barret down and whispered, "Calm down! We really need the help, right?" The big man scowled and ground his teeth painfully in his head. "Tifa…that's money for Marlene's schoolin!" he snapped back. Standing upright, he pointed a finger at Cloud and motioned down. "Two thousand!" Cloud shrugged.

Tifa smiled and sighed. "Thanks…Cloud," she said to herself.

* * *

The next morning, Cloud awoke to find the basement empty. Shaking the sleep out of his head, he rode the elevator upstairs and found Tifa and Barret waiting for him. "Good morning, Cloud!" Tifa said, smiling. "Did you sleep well?"

"Huh…Barret's snoring kept me up," he said with a laugh.

Barret sneered and mocked a laugh, then poked a materia at Cloud. "Take this ya smug little shit bird. Our target's the Sector 5 reactor, and the rest of the team's on the train already. So let's move!" Leaving Marlene in charge of the store, Cloud and the others flew out of the slums, past the pillar, and arrived at the train station just in time to have the doors snap shut behind him.

"Awright, we made it!" Barret cheered. Turning to Cloud and Tifa, he gave them both their ID cards and pinned his own to his vest. "Now, these suckers ain't gonna last too long cause Shinra's onto us. They've upgraded their security and we can't use our fake IDs no more…"

_Attention all passengers, the time is now 9:44 AM. We will be passing through the first security check in five minutes. Please have your cards ready. Thank you for riding with Shinra. Have a nice day._

"That means they've finished connecting all the cars," Tifa said, looking out the window. "We're finally moving."

Barret claimed a seat as his own and jumped into it, leaning back and letting the train bump his head up against the window. "So in five minutes, we're jumpin off this train, got that?" Nodding, Tifa and Cloud spread out.

"Hey Cloud, come on over here and look at the railway map with me," Tifa said, motioning for him to come over. Shrugging, Cloud stepped up behind her and watched the map. "Jessie told me that you've already seen this. But that's all right. Come a little closer." Cloud inched forward until he was almost right behind her. Her long, dark hair brushed gently against his arm, sending a sharp tingle up his back. Shivering, he hooked his thumbs into his belt to stop the urge of just spinning her around and...

"I didn't do anything!" Cloud shouted, jumping back. Red light filled the train car, and Tifa turned around, looking at him strangely. "What are you talking about? It's just the security check. But this isn't right…it was supposed to be further down."

Jessie then came running out of the next car in a panic and grabbed Cloud by the shoulder. "Come on! Somebody messed up an we've been found out!" Barret roared a string of curses off and flew past Cloud into the next car. "Get moving! They're gonna lock up all the train cars!" Jessie added, and followed Barret. Cloud and Tifa were close on his heels.

The train was longer than Cloud had thought. Several cars were strung along after the first five, and pushing through a crowd of confused citizens made the trip harder. He also felt several hands grab at his money, his sword, his materia, while others just…grabbed. By the time Cloud had made it through the dining car, he thought he had lost two hundred gil, his fake ID, and been poked by elbows and knees until he was sore.

In the end of the final car, though, he found AVALANCHE in a set of disguises waiting by an open door. Jessie, who was dressed up like a soldier, hurried everybody down to the open door and pretended to look official. Barret waited next to her and was shouting instructions, while Cloud and Tifa looked out the door at the speeding tracks. "Pretty scary…huh?" she asked.

"Too late to think about that now," Cloud said. "Why'd you come, anyway?" Tifa chewed on her lower lip, searching for an answer, but was interrupted by Barret. "Get movin you two! We ain't got time for this!"

Tifa nodded and straightened up. "Okay…watch me! I'm gonna jump!" With that, she leaped from the train and vanished in the darkness. Cloud turned around to face Barret, who was watching with a grin. "Aren't you coming?" he asked the big man.

"A leader always stays till the end," he said. "Gwan and get moving. But don't get yerself hurt, cause this is only the beginning of the mission!" Giving a stiff salute, Cloud jumped backwards out of the train and hit the tracks rolling. Barret lifted himself off the seat and poked a finger at AVALANCHE. "Yall got your orders. An this is only the beginning, so keep your guard up!" With that, he jumped off the train and left Jessie to take care of the rest.

Barret found Cloud and Tifa around the corner searching for the big man. As soon as Barret spotted them, he spun Cloud around to face north and pointed. "Down that way, bright boy. There's a path leading to the main reactor valve we can take if we go this way. Jessie's got everything else under control, so let's move!"

The train tunnels were dimly lit by soft, red lights that hung next to ventilation shafts. The slow, steady dripping of water was echoing through the empty, steel hallways and was almost in tune with the thuds that Barret's boots made as he stomped through the tunnels. Pipes all shapes and sizes lined the ceiling, dribbling with cold water and sizzling hot, mako energy. The tracks and walls shook as trains passed overhead and to the sides, sending the team scrambling for cover, thinking that another train would come barreling down on them any second now from around a corner. Cloud missed being inside the train and suddenly knew what a Chocobo in a pair of headlights felt like.

After a long trek up a slanted trail, the entrance to the reactor was in sight. Through the door, though, five thick beams of green light spread across from wall to wall and barred off entrance. "Those're the Shinra's security beams," Cloud said with a sigh. "We'd get fried if we tried to cross."

"Well there's gotta be a way in," Barret grumbled. "Look around for somethin we can use to maybe short this thing out."

As Cloud and Barret searched, Tifa peered down an air vent and looked inside. A rush of warm air that stank like dead souls and cheese blew from the depths of the shaft, and she stepped back, waving an arm and coughing. When she could see straight again, she grabbed the mesh wire and pulled. Tifa yelped as she was knocked back with the grate in her hands.

Cloud turned around in time to see Tifa fall over with the vent cover in her throbbing hands and grinned. "Well, it looks like you're good for something after all," he said smugly. Tifa rolled her eyes and had him help her up. Barret poked a head into the shaft and looked around. As another warm gust of air blew up from inside, he cursed and backed out, blinking. "Damn, it reeks in there. Smells like raw mako."

"Hey, you don't think maybe this leads to the reactor, do you?" Cloud asked, looking into its dark, dusty depths. "I mean, that would explain the smell and all."

Barret raised an eyebrow at Cloud. "You want me to squeeze down this tiny thing?" he asked, poking a thumb into the blackness. "This's one tiny hole. Gives me the chills, but I guess we gotta go, don't we?" Cloud and Tifa nodded, then jumped down the vent, followed by a reluctant Barret.

The vent was thick with dust and covered with bugs and spiders that took great offense to these big, ugly things stomping around all over them. More than once, Tifa had to stop and swipe insects off her bare legs and arms in a panic. Barret had to hunch down and stand almost perfectly still, then shuffle down the tight corridor. He was simply too big for this vent. Cloud, though, had little trouble navigating the dark hallways, and had almost no trouble with the bugs at all._ Probly cause he's got a head fulla mako_, Barret grumbled.

When the shaft ended, there was a short series of ladders that led to the bottom most area of the reactor, where all the maintenance equipment, spare parts, and other such things were kept. Wedge was down there, poking around in boxes and whistling tunelessly when Cloud and the others showed up. As soon as he did, though, he pointed them up another ladder and pulled out.

Jessie was waiting for them at the vent cleaning station. "I'm sorry," was the first thing she said when she saw Cloud. "The ID fiasco on the train was my fault. I made our new cards special in hopes they would be coordinated with the Shinra…"

"Don't blame yourself," Cloud said, shaking his head. "Nobody could have seen it coming." Jessie nodded and slipped Cloud a box of grenades, then hurried after Wedge.

Down another ladder, Biggs was sitting by a long tunnel that glowed a soft green and smelled of mako. When he saw Cloud come in, he stopped throwing cards down into Sector 5 and jumped to his feet. "Well, nice to see you all made it," he said, smiling. "The reactor's down this tunnel, so be careful. The rest of us are gonna pull out now, and meet back at the hideout later. Good luck." With that, he scurried up the ladder and vanished.

Peering down the tunnel, Cloud winced as the smell of raw mako hit him again. It had always made his head spin. "This's a steep tunnel," he said. "Once we go in, there's no coming back."

"Just go!" Barret shouted, and shoved Cloud inside. Yelping, Cloud slid down the tunnel and was spat out onto a slanted steel beam, which continued his forward momentum until it came to a steep drop, flinging Cloud off the beam and stumbling into a huge generator. Cloud hit the large metal and plastic box with a loud smacking sound and staggered back after peeling his face off the warning label. He saw Tifa come sliding down the beam, hit the end, leap off and do a triple-backflip double-axle reverse half-gainer high in the air, then land on her feet without stumbling in the least. Barret simply jumped off and skidded to a halt behind Cloud, who was too dizzy to even glare at the big man.

After shaking his head and stopping the reactor from spinning, Cloud led the others through the same maze of ladders and stairs he had gone through in the first reactor. And right where it should be, Cloud spotted the mako valve for Sector 5 looming large in front of him behind a narrow catwalk.

Barret stayed behind on watch this time, while Tifa and Cloud set the bomb. Before Cloud could reach inside the bag and grab the explosives, though, another stabbing pain ripped through his head and everything started spinning again. Crumpling to his knees, Cloud's watery eyes saw…

* * *

…Tifa was standing over the limp form of…somebody…and weeping helplessly. A huge, slender sword lay beside her, and as Cloud watched on, she fingered the sweaty grip and narrowed her eyes.

"Shinra…mako reactors…Sephiroth…SOLDIER…I hate them all!" she roared, and hefted the huge sword over her shoulder. With that, she rushed inside to the next room, where…

* * *

"Cloud?" Tifa asked, kneeling down next to him. "Are you all right?" Cloud blinked and looked up at Tifa, whose image was fuzzy, but readable. Nodding, he stood back up and leaned on the railing until the throbbing pain ran away again. When it left, he removed the bomb from the bag, stuck it to the valve, set the timer, and ran.

Up past the broken stairway, shaky ladders, and security alarms Cloud and the others ran. It seemed that, for some reason, Shinra security was light today. Maybe they were all at the blown-up reactor? No, Cloud thought, there's some other reason. It shouldn't be this easy to just waltz in and vaporize a mako reactor.

It wasn't.

Barret marched ahead of the others at the forked catwalk and was heading for the train station when five Shinra security guards flung the doors open and pointed their assault weapons at him. "Shit!" Barret roared, backing up. "It's a trap!"

From inside the reactor, footsteps could be heard echoing on the solid, steel floor. As the footsteps got closer, Cloud reached for his sword and scowled. He had a good idea about who would be showing up.

President Shinra, short, fat, and losing his thin blonde hair walked out of the reactor and smirked. His bright, crimson, two-piece suit fit him snugly, and he refrained from moving much more than walking and simple gestures. Still, he was a menacing figure and the most powerful person on the face of the planet. He regarded AVALANCHE like he might a bunch of stubborn, willful children and shook his head. "So…you all must be that…hmm, what was it again?"

"AVALANCHE!" Barret snapped, bumping past Cloud. "And don't you ferget it! You're President Shinra, huh? I'm not impressed."

President Shinra shrugged and pointed at Cloud. "And you, traitor, what was your name?"

"Cloud," the ex-SOLDIER said bitterly. The president nodded and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Of course…Cloud. You'll have to forgive me for asking, but it's not every schmuck that leaves SOLDIER for a mercenary job. Especially against the company that gave him everything he wanted. But it doesn't matter. You can't expect me to remember names, not unless you become another Sephiroth."

Cloud's heart stopped in his chest at the mention of Sephiroth. The president simply sighed and shook his head. "Yes, Sephiroth…he was brilliant. Perhaps too brilliant."

"None of that matters now!" Barret shouted, shaking an angry fist at President Shinra. "In a few minutes this whole place'll go up, hear!"

President Shinra simply laughed. "What a waste. Such fireworks simply to get rid of vermin like yourself."

Oh, Barret was angry. His ears nearly spouted steam, and he shook all over with fury. He pointed his gun barrels at President Shinra and snarled as they spun, empty. "You shut yer ass up!" he roared. "You all are the vermin, suckin the life outta the planet, an that makes you KING Vermin, so you just_ shaddap_!"

Still, the president's cool resolve was unbroken. He simply looked down at his gold watch and sighed. A helicopter came soaring up from beneath the catwalk, sending dust scattering everywhere. "If you'll excuse me, now, I have an important dinner date," President Shinra shouted. Waving, he climbed up into the chopper and laughed as it took off. Barret had just finished loading a fresh clip of bullets, and fired away as the helicopter flew off. "Dinner…" he snarled. "Don't gimmie that you smug little--"

"By the way!" President Shinra shouted as the chopper dipped in a bit closer. "I've arranged for a little playmate for you."

From the sewer exit, bursting through the walls, a huge hovering robot crashed into view and armed its four guns, tightened its fists, and readied the grenade launcher in its chest. "Meet, Air Buster, a product of our Weapons Development branch. I'm sure the information he'll extract from your dead bodies will be of great use to us."

"From SOLDIER?" Tifa gasped. Cloud pulled his sword free and scowled. "No, this is just a stupid robot!"

"I don't care what it is!" Barret shouted, pointing his gun at it. "I'm gonna bust it up!"

As if responding to Barret's hostility, Air Buster pointed its forward guns at him and Tifa, armed its rear guns at Cloud, and blasted all three of them at the same time. Barret's thick armor around his abdomen protected him for the most part, and Cloud's sword took the brunt of the burst. Tifa, though, was barely able to avoid being shot, and she almost lost her balance on the edge of the railing she ran into. Barret grabbed her slender arm at the last minute, though, and hauled her back to safety. "Hey, we still need you for a few things, girl," he said, smiling. Returning the smile and looking down at her arm, she saw where the bullet had sliced through her bare skin cleanly, leaving scorch marks and tattered flesh hanging off the wound, but no bleeding. That was good; she could still fight.

Meanwhile, Cloud poked his head around the blade of his sword to see the two rear guns flailing madly, searching for a target. From the ground around Cloud, a shimmering green light exploded at his feet and tossed his hair up into the air. Swinging his sword around and strapping it to his back, Cloud thrust his fists forward and summoned up a bright spear of white lightning from the skies above. The bolt ripped through the thick armor plating on Air Buster, shorting out its targeting systems. Instead of picking a target, the guns fired randomly and almost constantly, keeping AVALANCHE on their toes unless they wanted to get blasted.

Tifa reached into her sack and pulled out the box of grenades Jessie had given them. She had planned on stuffing one inside its own grenade launcher and removing that, but she hadn't taken a single step before Air Buster moved in on her and was ready to squish her up against the wall. Throwing the box at Barret, Tifa used a handspring to clear the full twenty feet to the sewer exit and bounded up on top of the rubble. Grabbing onto a steel wire for leverage, she pushed off and flipped high over Air Buster's head, landing behind the robot just as it crashed into the wall again.

"Barret, throw me the box!" she shouted. Barret stopped searching for an explosive and lobbed the case at Tifa, who pulled a grenade out and yanked the pin free. Jumping up on top of the robot, she threw the grenade down the gaping hole Cloud's bolt had left behind. When she peered down inside, though, she shook her head and emptied the entire case out into Air Buster.

By this time, the robot had managed to turn around and speed towards Cloud, The ex-SOLDIER stood with his sword held out before him, grasping for some shred of an idea. Before it could reach him, though, the grenades inside Air Buster went off, blowing the robot to shreds. Unfortunately, it also took apart the chunk of catwalk Cloud was standing on.

The ex-SOLDIER managed to cling to the edge for dear life, but was too tired to pull himself up. Tifa dropped to the floor and scooted up to her waist, reaching for Cloud, but it was no use. He was too far away. "Cloud!" she shouted. "Cloud, hang on! You can't die yet! There's too much I have to tell you!"

"I know…Tifa," he said softly. Cloud looked up at Barret, who might have looked genuinely worried this time. "Get Tifa outta here!" Cloud snapped. "This place is gonna go up any second now!"

"Hey, what bout you?" Barret asked, looking down at the slums far below. Cloud's sweaty hands were quickly losing their hold on the cables he was clinging to. "I'll be all right, but get her out, now!"

Barret sighed. "Yeah, sorry about all this. I'll see you later, though, got that?"

Cloud barely had enough time to nod before the bomb went off. The mako reactor shattered and crumbled to the ground, while Cloud was shaken from his perch and dropped to the slums below. Tifa would have gladly joined him if Barret hadn't stopped her.

While Cloud plummeted, he looked up and saw the dwindling plate, while below, he saw nothing but a thick fog. Great, he wouldn't even know what he was gonna get impaled on, or whose house he would crash into. At least he might black out before he hit…

Cloud blacked out.


	3. A Light in the Darkness

_Chapter 3: A Light in the Darkness_

_Hey, are you all right?_

Cloud's head was throbbing. His beat-up body ached all over, and a sharp pain tingled between his eyes. Somehow, though, he managed a short nod to answer the voice inside his head.

_You're lucky. Back then, you could just get by with skinned knees._

Skinned knees? Then? What about now?

_Don't worry about that. Can you move?_

"Oh...look at that!" a voice said from the darkness. "Hey, are you all right?"

Hey, who are you, anyway?

Hello?

* * *

Cloud slowly sat up and shook his head. The bright stained glass stung his sore eyes and made his head hurt even worse than it already did. Still, it was a comfort knowing that he was still alive. Then again, the bright angels that surrounded him made him rethink that. 

"Welcome back," she said, smiling. Cloud turned to see...her? Again?

She smoothed out her bright pink dress and knelt down next to him. "You took a pretty nasty fall. But the flowers saved you." Cloud looked down around him and saw many crushed pinks, yellows, and reds all around him. He jumped to his feet and dashed out of the flower bed, looking up at the hole in the roof he had made. He began to wonder if Tifa and Barrett had made it out all right. "Sorry about the flowers," he said, plucking a petal from his pants.

The girl smiled warmly and stood back up. "That's all right. The plants here are quite resilient to damage. They say you can't grow flowers in Midgar, but for some reason, they have no trouble growing here." She turned around and stared up at the stained glass windows that adorned the walls. The light streamed through the colored glass and splashed across her pink dress and highlighted her every breathtaking feature. "I love it here," she said softly.

Cloud swallowed hard and began clenching and unclenching his fists. Turning around, the girl pulled on her small red jacket and sighed. "Say, we haven't been introduced, have we?" She knelt down in the flowers and ran her slender hand through the soft petals, gently parting them aside. "My name is Aerith."

"I...I'm Cloud," the ex-SOLDIER said, holding his resolve tightly in his throat. "Me? I do a bit of everything."

It was then that Aerith noticed the large sword strapped to Cloud's back. "Say...do you have materia in there?" she asked. Cloud pulled his sword free and fingered the lightning and ice materia that had been stuck inside. "Sure. Nowadays, you can find materia anywhere."

"Yeah, but mine is special," Aerith said, removing the bright white orb that held her pink hair ribbon in place. As her long, brown hair spilled down her back and over her shoulders, Cloud felt that same tingle that had come up on him when she smiled at him for the first time. "It's not good for anything at all."

Cloud shrugged. "You probably just don't know how to use it," he said. Aerith shook her head, re-did her thick braid, and set the orb back in place.

Aerith smiled, and Cloud choked on his breath. "You said...you did a bit of everything, right? I have a request to ask of you then..." Before she could finish, though, the church doors swung open to reveal a thin man in a dark blue suit that looked like it had been slept in. Rubbing his scraggly face, the man stepped inside and smirked at Cloud, who had taken a step backwards towards Aerith.

"G'morning, you two," he said. From behind, three of Shinra's soldiers came up to back the scraggly man with assault weapons. "Hey, Reno!" one of them said. "You want us to take these two out?"

"I haven't decided yet, yo," Reno said, running his hands through his messy red hair.

Cloud scowled and stepped up to Reno. He was close enough to smell the cheap booze on his breath when he stopped and glared at him. "Reno...with the Turks."

Reno grinned. "Shinra Administrative Department of Investigation, please!" he said. "That's our official title. It was Heidegger who started calling us 'Turks'. God knows why...or am I not supposed to say that in church, yo?" Behind him, the soldiers chuckled smugly. Reno reached inside his blue suit and pulled a small stick out that was as long as his forearm and popped a hidden trigger, extending it to almost two and a half feet. "Now all I came for is the girl, SOLDIER-boy. Move you ass and you won't get it handed to you, yo."

"Sorry pal, no dice," Cloud snapped. Reno fingered the stick in his hand and smirked. He tried to jab Cloud in the ribs, but the ex-SOLDIER spun to the side and swung at Reno. The Turk was fast on his feet, though, and jumped back. Aerith suddenly stepped in between them and held the fighters at arm's length. "Don't fight in here! You'll ruin the flowers! Cloud, please, just get me out of here."

Cloud dragged Aerith behind him. "This's gonna cost you," he whispered. Aerith chewed on her lip for a moment until a smile crossed her face. "How about...if I just go out with you once?" Cloud blinked and looked confused, but didn't take his eyes off Reno. Backing up into the back room of the church, Cloud ducked behind the doors and used a broken wood beam to bar them shut.

Reno put his stick away and marched over to the doors. "Okay, you guys, time to clean up...but for God's sake, don't step on the flowers, yo!"

The soldiers shrugged. "Hey Reno, you stepped all over 'em!"

"She's gonna get pissed, man!"

"Yeah, you're gonna catch holy hell!"

Reno sighed and kicked at the doors.

Behind the doors, Cloud jumped back to avoid the spray of splinters that flew as Reno kicked. "That isn't gonna hold for too long," he said, looking up. "Looks like there's a hole in the roof up there. We can probably get out that way, but we've got to hurry." Cloud led Aerith up a tall ladder and helped her across a gap in the floorboards. From what Cloud could see, it looked like a huge test rocket had crashed into the back of the church. It also looked like nobody had cared enough to get rid of it.

When Cloud scrambled across the gritty surface of the rocket, Reno gave the doors a hard kick and snapped the wooden beam into chunks. "Aerith, hurry up!" the ex-SOLDIER shouted. Aerith nodded and was about to cross when Reno looked up and scowled. "Fire, you dipshits! Fire! Don't let the Ancient get away, yo!"

The floor underneath Aerith was blasted away, and Aerith was sent tumbling down the rocket and to the floor. Reno looked up and smirked. "Did you hit her? Well she shouldn't have run away, yo."

Cloud looked around frantically for a rope or a beam, anything that would lower him down to the bottom floor. All he saw were a bunch of barrels. Somehow, he had to maybe ride a barrel down a beam, swing his sword at just the right time, and...barrels?

Cloud dashed up to the first barrel and locked his fingers underneath it. Cloud's SOLDIER-built arms and legs went to work as he heaved the barrel up off the floor and sent it plummeting down below. By luck or chance, the barrel crashed into one of the guards with a sickening thud. "Aerith, run for it!" Cloud shouted. Nodding, Aerith hurried back upstairs while Cloud continued to drop the few remaining barrels onto the guards and tried to smash Reno, but the Turk split the barrel into splinters with a fast smash from his nightstick. "Hey, is that all, SOLDIER?" he shouted up. "You suck, yo!"

Cloud scowled and resisted the urge to jump down and beat Reno senseless. "I am so gonna kick your ass later," he muttered to himself. As Aerith climbed up to the roof, Cloud hurried after her and jumped out the hole in the roof.

* * *

"So, they're after me again," Aerith said with a sigh. Cloud looked up at her and gave her a blank stare. "That guy's from the Turks," he said. "They're Shinra's personal guard, involved in a lot of bad stuff. Murder, spying, kidnapping...that sort of thing." 

Aerith nodded. She believed it.

"So why are they after you?" Cloud asked, looking around for any other signs of the Shinra. Aerith shrugged and tossed her thick brown braid over her shoulder. "I don't know. Maybe they want me to be in SOLDIER." She looked up at him and peered at his glowing blue eyes. "You were in SOLDIER, weren't you?"

Cloud looked down at her and blinked. "Well, uh...yeah, actually. Rather, I used to be. How'd you guess?"

"Your eyes," Aerith said softly, standing up. She stepped up close to him and brushed some of the spiky hair from his face. "They glow."

Cloud's face burned at her soft touch, and something long forgotten inside him stirred. "Th...that's the sign of someone who's been infused with mako...a mark of SOLDIER." She nodded and began to scurry down the roof. "My house isn't too far from here. So let's go...bodyguard!"

* * *

The slums of Sector 5 were bigger than the ones in Sector 7, but they were nonetheless just as dirty. Trash and pools of scum coated water lay strewn around the streets, and several homeless pawed at Cloud for loose money. After the ex-SOLDIER had decked one of them hard enough to knock the bum's remaining teeth loose, though, they left the two alone. 

The small town that constituted most of Sector 5's shopping was a bit cleaner than outside, seeing as how people actually had to live here, but it still didn't do too much to the atmosphere. Sector 5 was supposed to be full of loonies, like the guy in the sewer pipe who did nothing but groan all day. The number '2' had been tattooed onto his hand long ago. Most just ignored him, thinking him to be a lost POW in the war years ago. That was life in the slums, though; step on your face and look at you.

Just beyond all the trash and scum, though, lay a lush green paradise, complete with a streaming waterfall that roared behind a tall, clean house with flowers on each sill. "This is...your house?" Cloud gasped, looking at the rich garden path and trees that sprung out of the ground and reached for the sky far above. How all these plants managed to grow here with little fresh water and actual sunlight was truly beyond Cloud's reasoning.

"Come on in and meet mom," Aerith said, pulling Cloud inside.

Elmyra Gainsborough immediately stopped stirring whatever it was she was cooking and shuffled out to meet Aerith. Throwing her arms around the girl, she straightened up when she saw Cloud staring at her. "Oh, forgive me...I'm just glad to see that my girl is home. Please, come in."

Nodding, Cloud took a seat at a table in the middle of the floor and was surrounded by Aerith and her mother. "Mom, this is Cloud. He protected me on the way home, and..."

"You mean you were followed again?" Elmyra gasped. "My stars...Cloud, thank you for helping Aerith." Cloud shrugged. He still wasn't sure about what to say for the payment, though.

The three sat like that for a few minutes, sighing and wishing the other would say something in order to clear the air and get rid of the thick tense feeling that had sat on top of them. Elmyra saw that as her job, so she stood up and said, "I'm going to go upstairs and get ready for bed. Aerith, you should be doing the same, soon." With that, she turned around and headed upstairs before Aerith could say anything.

Cloud leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the table. "Is Sector 7 far from here?" he asked. "I want to get back to Tifa's bar."

Aerith grinned and nodded. "Oh...so is Tifa a girl?" Cloud shrugged. "Is she a girl...friend?" That question nearly made the ex-SOLDIER fall back and tumble from his chair. He managed to right himself, though, and shook his head. Aerith clapped a hand over her mouth to try and stifle a giggle, but it didn't work very well. "You don't have to get that upset!" she said.

"Well...still, that's nice," she added. "Sector 7's not too far from here. I could show you the way."

Cloud sighed. "I don't know...getting help from a girl and everything..."

Aerith shot out of her seat and poked a finger at Cloud. "A girl?" she snapped. "What's that supposed to mean?" As Elmyra came back down stairs, Aerith marched over to her and smiled sweetly. "Mom, I'm taking Cloud back to Sector 7. I'll be back soon."

Elmyra blinked and looked as if she was about to say something, but took another look at Aerith's set face and sighed. "I won't bother. There's no talking you out of anything, is there? Well if you're going to go, go tomorrow. It's getting late. Go on upstairs and make your bed." Nodding and glancing back at Cloud with a smirk, she hurried upstairs.

Just as Cloud was about to get up, though, Elmyra put a stiff hand on his shoulder and looked down at him. "Your eyes...were you in SOLDIER?" Cloud nodded. Sometimes he hated his stupid eyes, especially today. "In that case, I'd like you to leave tonight," Elmyra said. "Aerith once had a boyfriend who ran off to join SOLDIER. I don't want her to get hurt again."

"Uh...sure," Cloud said doubtfully. "I guess I could do that."

Elmyra sighed and nodded, a small smile crossing her face. She insisted that Cloud rest up, though, so she herded him upstairs where Aerith was waiting for him. She pushed open the door to the guest room and showed him in. "Sector 7 is a little far from here, so I'll take you in the morning." Cloud looked the small but bright room over a few times, turned to Aerith and smiled a little. "Good night...Cloud," Aerith said softly, and shut the door. Cloud fell onto the bed and was asleep in minutes.

* * *

_This sure brings back memories..._

Huh? You again?

_It's like that time..._

Oh...then.

Cloud opened his eyes and saw here staring down at him on his old bed. The same springs still squeaked, and he wondered if his old hole he had carved into the mattress to stuff spare money into had been sewn up.

"I'm worried about you," she said, brushing some of his blonde hair from his face. Cloud had always thought that he looked more like his father, though he had never seen him before. "There are a lot of temptations in the city. I'd feel better if you'd just settle down and had a nice girlfriend."

Cloud smirked when he heard her put the weight on "temptations". "I'm all right," he said, waving the suggestion away.

"You should have...an older girlfriend. One that'll take care of you." She stepped back and folded her hands in front of her on her off-white apron. "I think that would be the perfect type for you."

"I'm not that interested," he said with a sigh.

* * *

Cloud snapped his eyes open and glanced around. Was he still...? No, it was Aerith's house. "I must have fallen asleep," he grumbled, getting to his feet. He carefully opened the door and put an ear to Aerith's room. Silence. Breathing a sigh of relief, he crept downstairs and ran outside. "Sector 7's not that far," he said, looking up at Aerith's bedroom window, half-expecting her to appear at the sill and watch him go. "I'll be all right by myself." 


	4. Wall Market Blues

_Chapter 4: Wall Market Blues_

Cloud sped past the Sector 5 slums. The lights in the small stores were out, and houses had been closed up for the night. Stray dogs and cats roamed the streets, along with the occasional toxin spitting Whole Eaters that preyed on the small and scraggly of the slums. A few approached Cloud, waving their massive teeth that were jammed into their gaping mouths; the things had no heads at all, just wide open mouths. A few well placed bolts of lightning snuffed any dinner plans they might have had though.

After stumbling through the slums under the perpetual darkness of the rotting pizza far above, Cloud found the entrance that led to the road to Sector 7. The road had undergone both major construction and a small earthquake, and combined with the explosions of the gas lines under the ground,the road was just about ripped upto complete uselessness. Still, he had to make it back in time before the others got too worried.

"Boy, you're up awfully early," Aerith said, her voice lined with poison. Cloud jumped back when he saw her emerge from the crack in the wall that led to the road. Shaking his head, he continued to back up a bit until an ivory pillar stopped him from going any farther backwards. "How could I ask to take you along when I knew it would be dangerous?" he asked, shrugging.

Aerith folder her arms in front of her chest and sighed. "Are you done yet?" she snapped. Cloud blinked and started to say something, but Aerith turned her back on him. "Sector 7 is this way. Follow me." Unusually cold, she ran off and left Cloud to follow behind.

* * *

At the Seventh Heaven, Tifa paced nervously behind the bar while the rest of AVALANCHE steadily grew more nervous themselves watching Tifa worry. After nearly two hours of silent waiting, Barret had had just about all he could take. "Dammit! Y'all just quit worryin' about Cloud! The guy was in SOLDIER, remember? Shinra's elite! He'll come back, prob'ly with nothin' hurt besides his pride!" 

AVALANCHE seemed to cool down after that, except for Tifa. Her worried silence was only broken by the saloon doors swinging open and letting in a skinny dark guy with a bright shock ofblonde hair styled up in a sharp mohawk that ran from his forehead to the back of his neck. He placed himself firmly at a barstool one space away from Barret and drummed his fingers on the table, looking around with a grin.

"Wassup to my crew, huh?" he announced to the near-empty bar. "Okay girl, get those sweet sticks of yours movin' and get Kotch here a little drink, hmm?" Laughing, he spun around in the stool and came face to face with Barret. The big man was almost touching noses with Kotch, who took one look at the scowling face and made a choked yelp.

Picking Kotch up by the back of his tattered jacket, Barret lifted him off the stool and carried him to the door. "You got exactly fourteen seconds to tell me what the hell your problem is, pal!" he shouted in Kotch's face. Cowering, Kotch squirmed a bit until Barret dropped him back on the floor. "D...Don Corneo, man," he said shakily. "He's just lookin' for a bride, that's all! I swear it!" He turned Barrett aside and bent him down to whisper something in his ear. "And I'll tell you what, that fine work of art behind the bar there could make you a very rich man. 'Course I can't say too much for the one in kevlar...but you gotta take what you can get, right?"

Barret took a step back and looked like he was considering the offer, but spun Kotch around to face the doors and planted a solid boot in his back, sending the small man tumbling down the front stairs. Just as he got to his feet, though, Barret popped out and opened fire. Kotch screamed again and scurried for cover, finding refuge only in the exit to Sector 6. "An' don't come back ya scraggly little ass-kissin' bottom feedin' shit!" Barret roared into the empty night.

Back inside, the rest of the team looked in awe as Barret stomped back in. "...what're you all lookin' at!" he shouted. "Y'all look like a buncha damn carp!"

"Barret, don't you remember Don Corneo?" Biggs asked, standing up. "He's one of the Shinra front-men. He gets all of his funding from them in exchange for other services." Barret's face went pale as he spun around and looked outside.

Jessie shook her head and sighed. "No good, Barret, he's gone and not coming back. Not after the beating you gave him." Barret grumbled something about how the little jerk had it coming to him.

Tifa came out from behind the bar and cleared her throat. When all eyes were on her, she almost lost her voice, but harrumphed again and blinked. "Maybe there's still a chance to find out what Corneo's up to," she said. "It'll be dangerous, though, and it's my idea, so I should go."

"What've you got in mind?" Barret asked. Tifa smirked and planted a fist on one of her shapely hips.

"Operation: Allure," she said.

* * *

"Wow...I can't believe it's still here," Aerith said. She leaned on the rusty chain fence and gazed happily into the small, dirty playground that lay at the gates to Sector 7. The small swing set was rusted almost completely solid and creaked noisily in the slight breeze that drifted from the cracks in between the plates far above. The slides, shaped like giant cuddly hamsters, hung their long tongues out to let the kids out that once crawled up through the other side. Charming, Cloud thought with a smirk. 

Aerith jumped up onto the tallest blue slide and planted herself at the top of the ladder. "Cloud! Come on up here!" she shouted. Shrugging, Cloud jumped up the front of the slide and sat at the edge of the slippery ramp.

The two of them sat like that for a few minutes, silent and anxious. When Aerith spoke, Cloud jumped. "What rank were you?" she asked suddenly. After pushing his heart back down into his chest, Cloud gave Aerith a blank stare. "Rank?"

"You know, in SOLDIER!" she said, grinning. Cloud's head started throbbing again, and he blinked back a sharp red haze. "Oh, I was..._whoami_...First Class."

Aerith's smile slowly dropped from her face, and she rested her chin on her knees. "Funny...that's the same as him." Cloud just gave her a blank stare. Without looking at him, she knew that he was going to ask. "I mean my first boyfriend," she said, a bit of her smile returning.

"You...were serious?" Cloud asked. Aerith shook her head and looked up. More than once, she wished the sun would shine down here more often. "Not really," she muttered. "But I liked him a lot. He went on a mission a few years ago and never came back. He was a real ladies' man, though...it wouldn't surprise me to find out he had found another girl."

Cloud simply nodded and gazed into her sparkling green eyes. But her thoughts were elsewhere, he could tell that just by looking at her. It wasn't until a Whole Eater scampered across a pile of rubble that he realized he had been staring at her for the past five minutes without saying a word. "Uh...what was his name? I probably knew him," he stammered.

"It really doesn't matter," Aerith answered with a sigh.

Before Cloud could say anything else, though, the huge gates to Sector 7 creaked and swung wide open, revealing a ghastly-colored Chocobo cart. As it wheeled through the playground on its way to Wall Market, Cloud saw a girl riding in back dressed in little more than a short electric blue skirt and a thin top complete with a satin bow around the neck. It was her huge brown eyes, though, that caught his attention. They locked gazes for a second, and Cloud jumped up in a flash.

"Tifa!" he shouted, but the cart was gone. He barely managed to grab onto a steel pole next to the long slide before tumbling down. "That was Tifa?" Aerith asked, standing up. She slid down the slide and started off after the cart. Cloud watched her go for a minute, then let go of the pole and jumped to the concrete.

"Wait, I'll go after her!" he called Aerith. "You've got to...go home..." He trailed off when he realized that she wasn't going to listen to him either way. Sighing, he took off after her...and hoped for the best.

* * *

The Wall Market of Sector 6 was supposed to be the only place in Midgar where anything was possible and everything was available. Judging from all the salesman hawking everything from broken-down guns to used materia, Cloud thought that all the rumors might be right. He bumped past pushy barkers, stray animals, and bouncy young women handing out fliers for the local Honeybee Inn. 

"Hey, man! Stay here, stay here! We got the best rooms all lined up..."

"Yo, kid...! You look like the smart type. C'mere and take a look at this..."

"Never will you find such a magnificent..ah...it's...well, whatever it is, it's rare and cheap!"

"Where have you been all my life? A sweet girl needs a big, strong man to be with, you know..."

Cloud scowled and muttered some nasty things under his breath. He began to wonder how Wall Market was so insanely popular if it was so irritatingly crowded at the same time. How was he going to find Aerith in all this mess?

It was then that he saw Aerith shouting at some street vendor over a bag of blue vials. Throwing a fistful of money at him, she stomped over to Cloud and began packing the vials into his backpack. "I hate that guy," she grumbled, jamming another vial into Cloud's pack. "He always shoots his prices up because he knows that I'm almost the only person who'll come by and get anything from him because he knows how much I can't stand to see him broke!" Each vial was thrown in harder than the last, until finally she made Cloud lose his balance and tip over backwards. As the ex-SOLDIER went crashing into a pile of boxes, Aerith stood in the street and folded her arms across her chest. "Sometimes I could just swat him," she said hatefully.

"Cloud, what on earth are you doing?" she asked, turning to face him. Cloud pushed a box off his chest and smiled bitterly. "Taking a nap," he snapped.

Aerith sighed and helped him to his feet. "I hope traveling with you in the future isn't nearly as exasperating," she said.

..._the future?_ Cloud swallowed hard.

"Anyway, we should try and find Tifa now," Aerith said, looking around. "But where could she have gone?"

"You said...Tifa? somebody said behind Cloud. Turning around, the ex-SOLDIER saw a short, chunky guy in a bright red uniform. The Honeybee Inn logo was stitched onto his dark crimson vest, and Cloud began to wonder how he had heard of Tifa. "We just got a new girl in today named Tifa," the man said, grinning. "You're pretty good at attracting the ladies, I see."

Aerith scowled and spun around, mumbling.

Shrugging, the man poked a finger into Cloud's ribs. "You wanna see her, kid? She's at the Don's getting an interview." Cloud pushed the finger away and stared at the man blankly. "What's that look for...? Don Corneo's the most powerful man in Wall Market. In fact, the reason he's looking at so many girls now is because he's lookin' for a bride...or so I hear."

"A bride!" Cloud shouted, his heart flying up into his throat. The entire market seemed to turn their gaze toward him and stare in wonder. Cloud blinked and looked around at all the attention he had suddenly gotten and pulled the short man into an alley. "Look, are you sure about all this?"

"Sure as my reputation!" the man said, puffing up his chest. "If you wanna see her again you'd better work fast. That girl's quite the looker."

Cloud's weak knees buckled, and he dropped to the dirt. Aerith knelt down next to the distraught ex-SOLDIER and smiled warmly. "Come on...there's got to be some good reason she'd do this, right?" she asked. Cloud simply groaned and buried his face in his hands.

Sighing, Aerith stood back up and tugged on Cloud's arm. "Let's go, then! If you're so worried about her, then why not make a daring rescue?"

Cloud looked up. A daring rescue...? He wasn't any hero. Besides, it'd be hard to get in there, being a guy. Still, they didn't have much choice. Nodding, the ex-SOLDIER sprang to his feet and pulled his huge sword off its magnetic locks. "You're right! he shouted, leaping into the crowd. Dozens of gasps and shouts at the crazed man with the massive sword flew from the market as Cloud tore a path through the crowd, rather, they tripped over themselves trying to get out of his way, towards Don Corneo's.

Corneo's mansion was at the end of Wall Market, just in front of the wall that led to Sector 7. Bright, flickering lanterns hung from the ceiling, yet the double doors stood unguarded. Cloud's boots thudded heavily against the packed dirt as he raced faster and faster towards the doors, gripping his sword until his knuckles cracked. At a good thirty feet from the door, Cloud sprang high into the air and raised his sword high above his head. He flew the entire distance and floated above the doors for a moments before tensing his powerful arms and reaching for every last bit of strength he had.

With a mighty roar, Cloud's keen blade flashed in the dim light. Preparing to knock the doors down, though, left him wide open, which is just what the huge bouncer who stepped from the shadows capitalized on. He lumbered into view just beneath Cloud and pushed a fist up in between Cloud's legs.

The ex-SOLDIER immediately dropped his sword and dropped to the ground in a heap at the big man's feet. "No guys inside Don's house 'cept for his co...kuh...pals," he said, twisting his big mouth around the word cohorts. He had heard Corneo say it so many times to him, he figured that's what he was, though he was never let inside. "So I'd better not catch you, a guy dat is, around here anymore makin' trouble for me, got that? Slowly whirling around, the tower of a man shuffled back into hiding.

Cloud could barely hear what the man had been saying through the sharp ringing that bounced through his head. Thought was painful, but he managed to keep from passing out completely. His stomach was doing back flips, while his legs felt like they were made of solid mythril. Aerith managed to push her way through the crowd that had gathered behind Cloud and drop to the ground next to him.

"Cloud...can you hear me? she snapped, shaking his shoulders. Cloud gasped for breath and slowly got to his knees, slightly hunched and coughing. Even though his head was still throbbing, he managed to nod and lean on a wall for support as he crawled back to his shaky feet. It hurt...oh, Lord above, it hurt...!

"I should have guessed that it wouldn't be that easy," Aerith said softly. "I'm sorry, this was all my fault." Cloud shook his head and coughed. Now that his legs were working again, he slowly righted himself and managed to stand up straight again. Taking stiff steps, he shuffled over to his discarded weapon and bent down to pick it up.

Lockinghis sword back in its magnetic locks, Cloud looked up at the mansion, then back down into the alley. He thought he saw a huge shadow lurch out of view, but he wasn't sure. Better safe than sorry, though. He wordlessly grabbed Aerith's slender arm and led her to the bar down the street.

Inside, the place was packed with people who were talking about Cloud's scuffle with the huge bodyguard in front of the Don's. Taking a seat close to the window, Cloud dropped his head onto the table and sighed. "It's no use trying to get past that big jerk,"he said shakily. "We've got to get in some other way."

Aerith nodded and looked around at the crowd. It seemed that lots of girls were hanging around two guys in the corner, and both ofthem were throwing around money like it was just simple paper. "Gather 'round, kids, 'cause Scotch is in the house...and on the house!" the first one said. A booming cheer filled the bar as glasses were dropped onto tables, waiting to be refilled. The second, who sported a brightblonde shock of hair, whispered in the first's ear. Scotch peered at Kotch over his huge shades and grinned. The both of them exploded into fits of insane laughter.

Aerith turned away once Kotch had pulled a giggly girl into his lap. She looked over at Cloud, who still had his head flat on the table. "I really am sorry about that, Cloud," she said softly. Cloud simply muttered something and began drumming his fingers on the table.

"Maybe if I took him by surprise..."

Aerith blinked, and her eyes lit up. "Cloud, I've got it!" she shouted, pulling the ex-SOLDIER to his feet. Despite sudden sounds of protest, Aerith hauled Cloud down a few blocks and pushed him into a small black door that smelled like perfume. When Cloud regained his balance, he looked around and saw...

"A dress shop?" he asked, turning around to see Aerith come in after him, grinning. "What are we doing here?"

"Cloud..." she muttered, giggling. "The only way for you to get in there..is to dress like a girl!" Cloud's glowing blue eyes shot up to the size of dinner plates, and his pale face flashed red. Aerith fell into his surprised arms, giggling and choking at the same time. Sniffing, she pushed off him and grabbed a bright purple dress off the rack. "Really, Cloud, it's the only way!"

Cloud shook his head and simply gaped at Aerith. He thought that if he got one more big shock today he's simply drop dead where he stood. "I think...purple really is your color!" she said, snickering. Cloud scowled.

"Hey, do you two want a dress?" the girl behind the counter asked. Both Cloud and Aerith turned to face the girl, who looked like she hadn't slept in days. "Well, you can't have any 'cause my dad makes all the dresses in the shop."

Aerith put the dress she was holding back onto the rack and leaned onto the counter. "And...why isn't he here?" she asked. The girl hung her head and sighed. "He's probably plastered at the bar. Again."

"So we can't get any dresses until we get him back? Aerith continued. The girl didn't look up, but gave a small shrug. After a minute or so, though, her eyes lit up and she looked up at both Cloud and Aerith with a wild expression. "Hey...you mean you'd actually get him back for me? Please, you've got to! This place'll go under if he's not here!"

Aerith smiled and nodded. "Of course we will!" She pushed Cloud back out into the streets, who quickly dug his heels into the ground and stopped all forward movement. He then spun around and grabbed Aerith by the wrists, setting them down at her side. "Aerith, are you sure about all this?" he asked.

She shrugged and started off for the bar. Cloud stood silent for a moment, then pushed his way through the crowd to catch up with her. "...there was some other way," he heard her finish saying. "It's only funny the first time I think about it. I know you won't like it, but your secret is safe with me." The ex-SOLDIER simply gave her a blank stare and opened the bar doors for her.

There, sitting in a far corner sat a man in a dark wool cap that was pulled down over his eyes. His shirt was stuck full of pins, and measuring tape stuck from his vest pocket. The crowd had thickened considerably, though, and getting across the room would be a problem. Aerith sighed and started off after the man, but Cloud grabbed her shoulder and hauled her back. "Hang on...I think I've got a better idea."

Aerith blinked.

* * *

Cloud made a flying leap off a chair onto the bar and whipped his sword from its locks. As soon as he hit the bar, somebody - namely Aerith - started screaming. "SOLDIERs! It's a raid!" 

Every last eye turned to face Cloud, who held his huge sword out in front of him with an ugly scowl on his face. "All right, which one of you bottom-feeding slimes is gonna be first!" he shouted. From the back of the crowd, there came a small whoosh and a click. As if following a signal, almost every last patron in the bar reached inside coat pockets, sleeves, vests, or backpacks and pulled out a firearm of some kind. Each locked and loaded with a seemingly singular _ka-chock_, and Cloud felt the cold, hard stares of the gun-toting drunks all over him like ice water.

Cloud had just enough time to swallow and shrug before they opened fire on him. He immediately dropped back behind the bar as round after round emptied into the wall above him, shattering glass bottles and spraying alcohol everywhere. Plaster and booze flew all over Cloud as he hunkered down with a snarl, jumping as each bullet came close.

After what seemed like nearly five minutes, the shooting stopped. Cloud carefully looked around the edge of the bar to see dozens of people slowly putting their guns away through the thick haze of smoke that stung his eyes. Eventually, things settled down again, especially after the smoke cleared away. It was as if nothing had ever happened, except for the back wall suddenly exploding. Cloud began to wonder how many times this has happened if nobody else showed up.

Aerith then burst into view in front of him and kneeled down, pale and breathing hard. "Good Lord, Cloud, are you all right?" she gasped. Cloud looked back behind the bar for his sword, picked it up, and nodded. "I found the man we're looking for. Come on, he's not too far from here." Hauling Cloud to his feet, she pulled him through the crowd towards the back.

Aerith and Cloud finally made their way to the back corner of the bar, where the dress shop owner appeared to be down on his luck, sipping on a glass on whiskey. Aerith went up and tapped the man on the shoulder, startling him. "Excuse us sir, but are you the father of the girl at the Clothing Store?" she asked him.

The old man gave her a weird look. "I own the Clothing Store, but I ain't your father," his speech slurring and the smell of cheap whiskey seemed to Aerith like it was coming from every pore of his body. Cloud was beginning to get impatient with the old drunk.

"Make me some clothes," Cloud demanded from the old man.

The old man cocked his head towards Cloud. "I don't make men's clothes...and I don't feel like makin' anything right now anyway. So get lost and let me drink in peace."

Cloud began to turn around to head out of the bar, but Aerith put a hand on his shoulder. "Cloud, you wait over there for a second. I'll try and talk to him. In fact, why don't you go over there and have something to drink. You've had a rough day anyways."

Aerith sat down in the stool beside the old man. He didn't like that blonde, spikey headed punk, but this girl was like an angel walking on Earth. "You know, mister. He always said that just once, he'd like to dress up like a girl. So, that's why I wanted a cute dress for him." The old man snapped to attention at this revelation.

"What? A tough looking guy like that?" the old man still shocked by what he was being asked to do.

Aerith leaned forward towards the man. "So, how 'bout it? Will you make him one?"

The old man pondered this for a bit. He had been getting bored with work and had been working out his frustrations at the bar lately. Now, he was being offered a job that was just too interesting to pass up. Besides, how could he say no to such a pretty face.

"All right, I'll do it," the old man said as he stood up from the bar. "I'll get on it right away. Come by the shop later to pick it up." With that, the old man rushed out of the bar back to the Clothing Store.


	5. Time to Meet the Don

_Chapter 5: Time to Meet the Don_

"I still can't believe I let you talk me into this."

Cloud and Aerith had returned to the dress shop, where the old man who owned the shop was admiring his latest creation. "Oh, you're here. It's ready, so go try it on," as he handed the bright, purple dress to Cloud.

Cloud grumbled every step of the way as he slowly made his way to the dressing room to try on his new dress. How Aerith could smile the whole time, was beyond him. _She was really getting a kick out of this_, he thought. Cloud went inside the dressing room and attempted to put the dress on over his uniform, but it kept getting caught on his sword. _I'm not going without my sword._ "Hey Aerith, how do you put this damn thing on?"

Aerith walked into the dressing room and laughed as Cloud was struggling to get the dress on over his sword. Cloud finally got the dress on to suit him, but when he wheeled around and saw Aerith in the small closet with him, his pale face turned beet red. "Whoa! What are you doing in here!"

Aerith was looking at Cloud and giving him a quick inspection, but something was still amiss with the guise. "It's still not right Cloud. Oh, I know, we need a wig!"

"Um, I thought you might," the dress shop owner chimed in from behind the counter. "So I talked to one of my friends over at the gym about borrowing one of his. There are a lot of people over there like your friend, so I borrowed a nice blonde wig for him."

_'Like your friend?' What the hell did the old man mean by that? _Cloud thought. "Aerith, what did you tell him?"

"Does it matter? Anyhow, we got a pretty dress. Now come here and let me put this wig on you."

Aerith got real close to Cloud as she put the wig on him, and old feelings started to creep up inside of him again. She smelled like angels ought to smell, at least in his opinion. _I could stand here forever_, he thought to himself.

"There, all done. Wow, purple really is your color," Aerith giggled as she backed away to admire Cloud in his long, purple dress with a red sash around the waist and his blonde, pig-tail wig.

Even the owner was impressed. "Wow, not bad. You know, this may be a new business for me. Tell you what. As a token of my appreciation, the dress is on the house."

Aerith walked around Cloud, giving him a close inspection. "You know, maybe we should put some makeup on you?"

"I think you've humiliated me enough, thank you very much." Cloud wanted to keep a little bit of masculinity for himself. He had enough jokes made about his spikey, blonde hair anyways.

"Well, now I guess its time for me to get a makeover," Aerith said turning to the shop owner and his daughter. "You have any dresses that would fit me?"

The shop owner's daughter went to the rack and picked out a modest, but shimmering green dress. "How's this? It matches your eyes."

The shop owner went to another rack and picked out a modest, but shiny pink dress. "How about this one? It's obvious you wear pink well."

The shop owner and his daughter proceeded to get into an argument over which dress looked better and who had the better taste in fashion. Aerith shook her head, and walked over to the rack and spotted a dress she loved. "I want THIS one!"

The shop owner, his daughter, and Cloud were all shocked at her choice. It was a shimmering red dress with a low cut and slits that went from the ankles to around the knees. _Definitely not something you would expect a girl who hangs out at an old abandoned church to wear,_ Cloud thought. Aerith took the dress off the rack and headed towards the dressing room. When she came out, Cloud's mouth practically fell to the floor. He always thought Aerith looked cute, but in this dress, she looked like a goddess. Aerith walked over to Cloud and did a little twirl a model would do on the runway. "So, how do I look, Cloud?" Cloud was so awestruck by her beauty, he couldn't even think of an answer. "Well you're no fun!"

* * *

Cloud and Aerith arrived at the front of Corneo's Mansion, and the same goon who just hours ago brought Cloud to his knees, was standing guard at the front door. The ex-SOLDIER was still worried that the guise wouldn't work, even though he was propositioned by three drunks on the way over. This guy got a good look at him earlier, and he was afraid that he would recognize him. _He won't get the drop on me a second time_, Cloud thought. 

The guard strutted his stuff over to the two girls. "Damn, you two are FINE! Come in, come in!" He then pulled out his radio and told the door man to open the door for the two ladies.

The foyer of Corneo's Mansion was simply breathtaking. The Don obviously had a thing for Wutainese culture, as his foyer was decorated with an oriental theme. The walls were painted a bright red with exquisite marble floors. Gold railings lined the stairs up to the second floor. In the center of the room was a big accent rug with a gold dragon stitched in the center of it. Off to the left was a mahogany desk, where a hulking bodyguard in a tuxedo was standing. The goon came out from behind the desk to greet the ladies. "Hey ladies. I'll go and let the Don know you're here. Wait here in the foyer and don't go wandering around please."

The goon walked upstairs and opened up the double doors at the top of the stairs, presumably the Don's office, and went inside. "Now is our chance to find Tifa," Aerith said as she grabbed Cloud and headed up the stairs. Aerith noticed an opening that led down to the basement. "Maybe she went down here. Come on Cloud."

Cloud and Aerith went down to the basement, which resembled a torture room more than a basement, and there standing towards the back of the room was Tifa, still in that strikingly slim electric blue skirt. _Thank God Barret isn't with her. That would just be too embarrassing,_ Cloud thought.

Tifa looked up and saw a girl in a red dress and a girl in a purple dress walk down the stairs. She didn't know who the girl in the red dress was, but the blonde looked oddly familiar. Tifa walked up closer to Cloud, and looked into his blue eyes. Tifa knew those eyes. "Cloud?"

"Yeah, it's me," Cloud answered as he looked down in embarrassment. Tifa, looking like she had seen a ghost, feinted.

* * *

Tifa's head was pounding, and the sudden glare of light as she peeled her eyes open didn't help any. The purple blob and the red blob were standing over her, peering down and trying to shake her awake. She pushed Cloud's hands away, though, and slowly sat up. 

"Tifa, are you all right?" the ex-SOLDIER asked. She managed a tight nod and grabbed onto his shoulder as she crawled back to her feet. "I'm fine, I guess," she said softly. "But, what are you doing here?"

Cloud cleared his throat and tried to lean on one foot, but it just didn't work in this dress. "Well, I..." He turned to face Aerith, who looked between Cloud and Tifa, then sighed and gave a curt nod. "Fine, fine...I'll just plug my ears and stand over here, I guess."

Tifa watched Aerith move over to the stairs, then turned back to Cloud and smiled. "I'm glad to see you're all right," she said warmly. "But how did you survive the fall?"

"That was Aerith," Cloud said. "After I fell into the church, she helped me find my way back to Sector 7. But by the time I got there, you were dressed in this thing--" He tried his hardest not to gape at her slim outfit. "...and...well, now we're all here."

Tifa sat up on the table in the center of the room and sighed. "Now, I guess it's my turn." She started swinging her long, shapely legs; she did that whenever she was nervous, Cloud thought. "Well, when we got back from the reactor, there was some weirdo that came into the bar and starting talking about Don Corneo. You've heard of him, right? Well, he's on the move all of a sudden, and Barret wanted to know why. I volunteered."

Cloud blinked, and was about to speak again when Aerith tapped him on the shoulder. "Sorry, but I overheard," she muttered. "I hear about the Don every time I come to Wall Market. I have since I was little. He takes these three different girls sometimes, and...uh, well...you know." The ex-SOLDIER scowled and nodded.

"Anyway," Tifa continued, "he's looking for a bride now. This was the only way to get in here."

"Sorry Cloud," Aerith sighed, coming back around. "for eavesdropping."

"That doesn't matter," Cloud snapped. "Besides, if Tifa's here, and since Aerith is here too, then I guess I don't need to ask who the third girl is." Both Tifa and Aerith exchanged glances, smiles, and then names. Turning back to Cloud, Tifa smiled. "Well, you're right. There was no need..."

"To ask," the other girl finished with a grin. Cloud rolled his eyes and grumbled.

"You know Cloud, you look pretty good from a distance. I can only imagine what Barret would say if he saw you like this," Tifa said. Cloud snapped his head over at her, his blue eyes blazing. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me Cloud."

The sound of footsteps made all three swing around to face the stairway. The man at the front desk stood at the top of the stairs, hands in his pockets and glaring down at the girls. "Hey, I thought I told you not to go wandering' around!" he shouted. "C'mon, the Don's waiting for ya. Sheesh...women." With that, he plodded off.

Scowling, Cloud clinched his fists and followed the man, with Tifa and Aerith trailing behind. He was led back up the stairs and to the door in the middle of the second floor hallway, which was swung wide open at the push of a button. Inside, Don Corneo sat with his feet propped up on his desk, watching the doors crank open with a glint of eagerness behind his sunglasses. Cloud saw Scotch and Kotch on either side of the Don, chuckling to themselves and exchanging glances.

Don Corneo ran his hand through the spiked blonde mohawk that sat on top of his head and jumped out of his chair. His tight jeans made a _scuff_ noise as he plodded around to the other side of the desk. Taking one look at Cloud, he giggled almost to himself and shivered. "Well, well..." he said, rubbing his chin. "Which shall it be for this evening? This one looks strong." The ex-SOLDIER ducked his head to hide a snarl. The Don shook his head and sighed. "Too shy."

He moved onto Aerith, who tossed her thick brown hair over her shoulder and grinned. Unbraided, it spilled over her shoulders and ran down the length of her back, almost flowing to her knees. That was the only way Cloud could describe her hair; flowing. Under the bright lights of Don Corneo's office, that light brown hair shimmered and caught the light just enough to make her eyes sparkle. Cloud suddenly realized that he was staring, and quickly ducked his head again. But, where did Corneo go?

Cloud saw Don Corneo standing in front of Tifa, looking her up and down in that tight blue top and short skirt. With her weight on one foot and a fist planted on a hip, she mad Don Corneo chuckle and smirk to himself. Cloud could see why the Don might be so impressed; she was all curves and accents in that--

_Get your head outta the gutter! _he snapped to himself. _It's bad enough you had to eyeball Aerith. You grew up with Tifa! Keep your mind on the mission._

"I've made my decision!" Don Corneo said, puffing out his chest and standing in front of his desk. "My companion for tonight will be...this pretty one!"

Tifa gave a bubbly little giggle and smiled. "Just be nice, Don," she whispered. Don Corneo turned to the two around his desk and shrugged. "You two can have the others." Giving a cheer and a sharp howl, Scotch led Cloud out of the room and down the hall, leaving Kotch to haul Aerith downstairs.

When Scotch opened the doors, the thick smell of beer and stale pizza filled Cloud's nose. It almost made him vomit. Sitting in front of the television was a group of men, all laughing at stupid jokes and throwing pretzels at the flickering screen. Cloud heard complaints about the 'goddamn Shinra" and about how all the electricity will go out in most of Sectors 6 and 8 because of the plate coming down. When he tried to move closer, he ended up stepping in a bowl of stale nacho cheese. Grimacing, he shook his boot clean and started to back out of the room.

"Where're you off to?" somebody said behind him. Cloud swallowed, not even needing to turn around to know it was the guy at the front desk again. Saying nothing, he crept closer to the middle of the room in hopes of hearing something else important.

"Three cheers for Don Corneo!" Scotch shouted, wrapping an arm around Cloud. All four of Scotch's associates jumped up and broke out into grins. Wiping mouths and shrugging up loose pants, they began to advance on the ex-SOLDIER. Scotch had him in a death grip.

He tightened his grip even harder when he felt Cloud trying to escape. "Now what?" he asked, smiling. "Are these jerks botherin' you? Don't worry 'bout them. I'll keep 'em away."

"I...I'm flattered," Cloud said, making his voice as soft as possible. "But no thanks."

Scotch blinked and took a small step away. "What? Why the hell not?"

Cloud looked around, swallowing. There was the guard at the door, four more coming in on him, and Scotch was right behind him. One good sweep should finish them, but only if he timed it right. He'd have to wait; buy some time. "Because..." he began, but Scotch put his hands on Cloud's shoulders and shrugged. "Because, well..."

More hands on his back; one brushed his neck. Scotch's grin faded as the scowl bloomed up on Cloud's face, and he stepped away, shaking. Cloud tore the dress off at the neck, revealing his dark purple SOLDIER uniform. How they had missed his sword was beyond him, but he didn't care at this point. He reached back and swung it from its magnetic locks on his back, pivoting on one foot. The blade struck home, splitting one of the lechers' stomachs open. With full momentum behind his swing, Cloud danced to the left and slashed, burying his blade in the neck of another.

"I ain't _interested_ in a buncha scrubs like you!" he roared. Before the second man fell, Cloud gripped the hilt of his sword and used it as a balance, whirling around and kicking the third upside the head. The fourth man charged on Cloud, but was met by a quick blow to the gut. As he doubled over, gasping, Cloud rammed his elbow into the base of his neck. He hit the floor next to his companion with a satisfying crunch.

As he was about to turn on Scotch, he felt something smooth and hard rip through his side. Jerking forward and clutching the bullet wound, Cloud staggered over to one side in time to avoid the next shot. "Goddamn it!" Scotch shouted, pointing the gun at Cloud with a shaky hand. "A freakin' man! Kick the crap outta him!"

The guard at the door whistled to the outside, then rushed at Cloud and decked him. Spots swam in front of the ex-SOLDIER's face, and he felt a thick arm wrap around his neck. With Cloud in a hammerlock, the guard pushed him towards the door, where thundering footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs.

Cloud's eyes went wide when he saw the familiar form of the front bouncer lumber up the stairs. "I thought I told ya not ta come around here no more," the giant growled, tightening his fists. "Now I'm gonna have ta--"

He never finished. Somehow, Cloud managed to bring a boot up and plant it in the big man's chest. Pinwheeling his arms, the bouncer grunted and tumbled backwards down the stairs. The ex-SOLDIER then drove his elbow home in the guard's side a few times, producing several pained grunts. As the guard let go, Cloud took him by the shirt and flung him over the golden railing, sending him hurling down to the first floor. Cloud spun around and charged back into Scotch's room, not waiting for the sickening snap that followed the scream.

Scotch was halfway out the window when Cloud came back inside. The lecher had taken the dirty curtains and fashioned a rope that just fell short of the back alley. When he saw Cloud's pale, snarling face, he squeaked something and began to slide down the rope.

Cloud picked up his sword and slashed downwards against the windowsill. The thin curtains split in half, and Scotch dropped to the street, howling. He dropped into a pile of empty cardboard boxes and trash bags, groaned once, and fell unconscious.

Pulling his sword out of the floor, Cloud shuffled back out into the hallway. Bright silver spots danced in front of his face, and moving, even breathing, hurt. He had heard of people who got shot like this; it didn't seem too bad until they drowned in their own blood. Looking down past his bloody glove, Cloud breathed a quick sigh of relief. The bullet hadn't even gotten near his ribs. The lesser of two evils, he thought with a cold grin.

He almost tumbled down the stairs before catching himself on the wall. Had he gone all the way across the hall? He couldn't remember.

Footsteps began to sound from down the stairs coming up; quick, light ones followed by longer, heavy ones. Cloud looked up from the floor, how did he get down here, and saw Aerith's braid bobbing up and down as she fled from Kotch. Somehow she had managed to find the time to change back into her regular clothes.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" Kotch giggled. He used the railings on the wall to push himself further up to Aerith. Just before he could lay his hands on her, though, she reached inside her jacket and pulled a six-inch steel tube from her pocket. Coming to an abrupt stop, she squeezed the trigger, causing the small tube to telescope into a six-foot staff. Kotch was caught in the mouth, and snapped his head back, whirling around on the stairs. Aerith then spun around and brought her staff down on top of his head, sending Kotch sliding down the stairs and crashing into the table in the basement.

Shivering, Aerith put her weapon away and almost tripped over Cloud. Stifling a squeak, she dropped down next to him and rolled the ex-SOLDIER onto his back. Had his face always been that pale? She hoped whoever had shot Cloud got what he deserved. Still, she had seen some of his tempers. Aerith hoped he hadn't gone too far.

Sighing, Aerith set Cloud's head in her lap and smoothed some of the blonde hair from his face. A sharp blue globe suddenly sprung to life between her outstretched hands, dancing between her fingers and sending a chill through her whenever she touched the ball. Gently, she willed the ball of light to expand, spreading her arms until it was big enough to cover Cloud's wound several times over. Aerith closed her eyes and pushed the glowing sphere down into Cloud's chest.

Grunting and shivering, the ex-SOLDIER's back arched up as far as it would go. Waves of biting cold shot through him, splitting through the dark haze that made up his world and snapping his eyes wide open. Cloud blinked and rubbed his eyes, then took a deep breath and glanced around. _Am I dead?_ he thought grimly.

"You gave it your best shot," Aerith said, looking down at him with a warm smile, "but you're still alive."

Cloud looked up at Aerith with a blank expression. It wasn't until he reached down to touch his wound that he realized what she had done. Even the blood stain was gone. "What...what happened?" he asked, sitting up.

"You were sick," Aerith replied, standing up. She smoothed her pink dress and shrugged. "I healed you. That's all." The ex-SOLDIER crawled to his feet, half-expecting the wound to reappear and pop open again. All he noticed from down there was a stinging cold, which was half gone already.

Picking up his sword and giving a quick shiver, Cloud's sour demeanor quickly returned and covered his face. "Let's go find Tifa," he said, his voice almost as cold as the lump of ice in his stomach.

* * *

Don Corneo stood upright on the bed, grinning and shifting his weight from one foot to another. Tifa sat on the edge of the bed, close to falling off, but it was still too close to the greasy lecher for comfort. All attempts to squeeze any information out of the Don was met by blatant innuendo or a flat out refusal to talk. 

"Please?" she asked, swinging her legs. The bed was tall; she didn't even touch the floor. "You can tell me."

Corneo simply shook his head and dropped to his knees. Tifa almost flew off the bed when he hit, but grabbed the foot board and kept her balance. "I've told you everything!" he chuckled. "I'm single, and had all the tests done. I'm as healthy as a horse!"

_And randy as a goat_, Tifa thought bitterly. Still, she managed a small smile as she turned around to face him. "But, just before we start, I mean..."

"Whoooo!" the Don hollered. "I can't wait any longer! Come to papa!"

Tifa squeaked and flew off the bed as Don Corneo flew into the air and dropped onto the spot where she had been sitting. Landing flat on his face, he grumbled some dark curses and got back upright. He heard the smooth _schling_ of steel caressing steel, and when he looked up, the nicked blade of Cloud's sword poked into the Don's neck. A small trickle of something warm and wet oozed down his neck, but to Don Corneo, it just might as well have been his deathblow.

"We know you've got heavy Shinra ties," Cloud said coldly, not even daring to breathe too deeply. At this point, if either he or the Don made a move, the fat man would die in a slow and nasty way. That might happen later; right now, they needed Don Corneo. "So talk!" he snapped. "Cause if you don't tell us..." He brought his elbows up higher. It made him look like he was pressing harder, when the point of the blade was simply glided in the already torn part of the Don's neck. It was a useful trick, if you were the only one who knew what you were doing.

"I'll cut them off!"

That was enough for Don Corneo. He swallowed loudly and began to babble. "I...it's the Shinra's idea! They're gonna get rid of the terrorist group, AVALANCHE! Rumor has it they're over in Sector 7 somewhere."

"How are they going to get rid of AVALANCHE?" Tifa asked, stepping out from behind a screen in her street clothes. "Talk, Corneo! 'Cause if you don't tell us...I'll rip them off!"

The Don looked down the length of Cloud's blade, and paled when he saw the ex-SOLDIER grin and nod. "B...b...by snapping the plate!" Corneo squealed, squeezing his eyes shut. "Know...know what's gonna happen? The pillar'll go PING, and every thing's gonna go BAM! I'm just glad they're not here in Sector 6!"

Tifa had stopped listening halfway through Don Corneo's garbled story. She felt something cold and sharp run up her back and dig its way into the back of her neck. Shivering, she clamped her hands to her mouth to stop a scream.

"Who put the Shinra up to this?" Aerith snapped, showing rare anger. "Talk! 'Cause if you don't tell us..." She searched a moment for the right word; Cloud thought she looked like she was enjoying this! "I'll crush 'em!" she finished, smiling proudly and planting her hands on her hips.

"It was Heidegger!" Don Corneo wailed. "The head of the Public Safety Maintenance Corps! All his idea, and that's all I know, I swear!" He was bawling by the time he finished.

Cloud almost dropped the sword from his suddenly numb fingers. Heidegger? Why would Public Safety try to destroy Sector 7? The SOLDIER program was the main branch of the corps. If Heidegger was serious about this, legions of the Third Class were probably already at the pillar, and the Turks wouldn't be too far behind, either.

"Are you listening?" Tifa was shaking him by the shoulders and trying to turn him away from Don Corneo. "Cloud, we've got to get back to Sector 7 as fast as we can!" The ex-SOLDIER slowly lowered his sword and nodded.

Before they could leave the room, though, Don Corneo threw a pillow at the door and bounced to his feet. "Wait just a second!" he said. "There's something I need to ask you."

Cloud was about to say something, but the Don raised a finger and cut him off. "Answer me this," he said, a smile suddenly breaking out on his face. "Why would a scumbag like me babble on about the truth? One, I didn't have a clue; two, I was sure I was gonna win; or three, I didn't know what the hell was going on?"

The ex-SOLDIER's scowl disappeared, replaced by a blank look. Tifa raised an eyebrow and shrugged when Cloud turned to her, and Aerith was no better. "Number...two?"

Don Corneo reached up to one of the many hanging lanterns that decorated his room and pulled. Cloud felt a rush of cold air come from under his feet, and when he looked down, he was already well on his way down the slick tunnel that had appeared in the floor. "That's absolutely keeeeee-rect!" the Don shouted down the tunnel. "Oh my sweet Aps, I have some new playmates for you!" His high-pitched cackle followed as the ex-SOLDIER plunged into darkness.


	6. The Night Sector Seven Died

_Chapter 6: The Night Sector 7 Died_

Heidegger waited for his fat reflection to split in half before exiting the elevator and stepping into the president's tower office. The entire floor belonged to the President of the Shinra Company. Steel lined the floors and walls, making his reflection pop up again, but this time it was bent and stretched as he waddled over to the president's huge desk. Reeve, the head of Urban Development, was all but on his knees with the president when Heidegger showed up, and a slow grin crossed his face beneath his huge, black beard.

"Mr. President, are you sure this is necessary?" Reeve asked. "I mean, to bring all of Sector 7 down just because of one terrorist group..."

President Shinra stared at Reeve from behind his desk and raised an eyebrow. "You want out, then?" he asked calmly. His cool, confident voice shattered whatever reserve of strength Reeve had left, and the head of Urban Development sighed as he shook his head.

Heidegger laughed behind him, making his many awards and medals bounce off his gut. "You should flush those personal problems in the morning, Reeve!" he said.

The president got up from his seat and moved over to the window that made up the entire rear half of his office. Through the thick glass, the president could see down over Sector 4 and all the way up through 8 to the fringe of Sector 1. He folded his hands behind his back glowered down at Sector 7; somewhere in there, AVALANCHE was waiting, a thorn in his side. "All the preparations have been made, Heidegger?" he asked, not turning away from the window.

"Yes sir!" the Peace Preservation manager bellowed, giving a stiff salute. "I sent the Turks out on this. We can't lose!" Laughing again, Heidegger spun around and waddled back to the elevator. He didn't close the doors though, not just yet. There was more he needed to hear.

Reeve sighed again and brought out a clipboard. "Sir...please, reconsider. Even if the loss of life isn't important, think about the cost. The rebuilding of Sector 7 will take almost all of Shinra's resources."

"Take the day off, Reeve," the president said. The head of Urban Development blinked in surprise. Hadn't he heard anything he was saying? "The keys to the resort in Costa del Sol are in my helicopter," President Shinra continued. "Take them and a change of clothes, and get out of here. In fact, don't come in until noon tomorrow. You're overworked."

Reeve's mouth was dry. He scratched at his goatee; a nervous habit he had picked up since being pushed up into the Shinra Executive Committee. He couldn't take a vacation now, now when Sector 7 was going to drop. This was too important to pass up. Muttering something noncommittal, he plodded back to the elevator and climbed in with Heidegger. "Flush'em," was all the big man said before he let the doors close.

President Shinra scowled again at Sector 7. Slowly, he took his hand out from behind his back and pointed a finger at Sector 7 like a pistol. "...bang," he mumbled suddenly, cocking his thumb back as if had fired.

"You're dead."

* * *

Cloud lost his weak grip on the slippery pipe as Tifa and Aerith crashed into him, and all three fell through the ceiling of the sewers beneath Midgar. Cloud, with the grace of Shinra's fighting elite, spun in the air and landed in the ankle deep sludge on his feet. Aerith, though, managed to land on her butt, and Tifa hit the water face first. 

With some surprising curses, Tifa crawled up out of the muck and wiped a lock of wet hair from between her eyes. "This is horrible," she grumbled, shaking her fingers dry. "AVALANCHE...Marlene...the plate'll crush them all!"

"Not if we get there first," Aerith said, craning her neck around to sneer at the mess on her pink dress. "We've got time, if we hurry." Tifa just sighed. "Besides...we're all in one piece."

A low, coarse rumble came from the huge storm drain behind Cloud. The ex-SOLDIER whirled around and backed up a few steps, gripping the hilt of his sword tightly. Aerith swallowed and reached inside her jacket for her telescoping staff. "Then again..."

Ripping the rusty grate off the storm drain, Aps burst from the shadows, flailing its huge, deformed skull and roaring. Two meaty fists pounded at the walls, sending rats and spiders scurrying for cover. The chains on its wrists flailed wildly as it smashed into the brittle green bricks that lined the walls. Turning its beady eyes to Cloud, the roar changed into a growl that rose from the back of its throat.

"Get back!" Cloud roared, and shot forward, drawing his sword. Aps took one broad swipe and flung the ex-SOLDIER against the wall with a bone jarring thud. Bellowing loudly, Aps rushed Tifa and Aerith, pounding its thick chest.

Both Tifa and Aerith took a half step back, then looked over to Cloud. Tifa, though, was the first to react, clearing her head and sending herself into the materia orbs locked into her gloves. The fires inside the materia sparked to life, and she grasped a hold of them tightly. A fountain of green light exploded on the ground around her feet, and her long, dark hair was thrown almost over head with the sudden wind that kicked up. Tifa closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let loose.

From seemingly out of nowhere, thick shards of solid blue ice exploded in front of Aps' chest, freezing to the monster's thick, blue skin and wild hair. The ice tore into Aps' well built stomach and arms as it expanded, sending steamy black blood flying across the walls.

The stagnant water aroundAerith suddenly began to bubble up and boil as the materia inside her staff flared to life. Green light exploded around Aerith as she pulled the fires from her materia crystals and stirred the power inside. Aps, who was in the middle of lumbering towards Tifa, suddenly found its hammy fist engulfed in blinding orange flame. Tifa nearly jumped out of her boots with surprise and fell back into the water, while Aps leaped back towards the storm drain, howling with pain and screaming with rage.

Cloud, meanwhile, had gotten back to his feet and was shaking his head violently. Blinking a few times, he barely managed to jump out of the way as Aps' huge blue form lumbered backwards towards him. The beast jammed its sizzling hand into the murky water, sending a huge gout of burning hot steam into the air.

Tifa and Aerith were lost in the cloud. Everything became a thick haze in front of them, and even the huge form of Aps was gone. They could hear it screaming, though, as Cloud tore into it with his huge sword. Tifa could recognize the sound of his voice with the movements he made; a slash, a cut, parry, thrust, slash, slash; she had heard him using the thing in back of the Seventh Heaven. He moved like a great, bloodthirsty cat with it in his hands, using his hips and powerful yet slender arms to work the massive blade like it weighed next to nothing.

Cloud, of course, wasn't thinking about all this; the training came natural to him. Again and again, his honed edge met tough, leathery skin and split it apart like Aps was made of paper. Blind fighting had always been a favorite of his, and this fog was no barrier to a SOLDIER.

Aps raised its huge, thick arms and grabbed a hold of a pipe on the ceiling. With a mighty roar, it ripped the pipe in half, sending a deluge of slimy green water into the sewers. The water split through the fog and swept it away, but the heat still remained like a thick, heavy blanket that hung in the air. Bathed in thick sewer water and covered with its own blood and filth, Aps roared again and jumped into the air.

As it landed, a huge green tidal wave of sewage flew from the storm drain it had come from, filling the sewers with slime. Aerith grabbed a hold of Tifa's hand and hauled her to the second level of the sewers just in time to get Tifa's boots damp, but Cloud was not so lucky. Caught up in the flow, the ex-SOLDIER grazed Aerith's outstretched hand and continued to speed down the tunnel.

Out of shock more than reflexes, Cloud grabbed a hold of the copper pipe that ran from the floor to the ceiling and scrambled up it. Aps had back flipped up onto its storm drain, and was roaring, louder than ever.

Cloud gripped his sword tightly in one hand and snarled at Aps. The hulking blue beast simply sneered in return, and growled at the ex-SOLDIER. It jumped up and down on its storm drain and beat at its chest. If Aps was hurting from its wounds, it hid it very well.

Curling up against the pipe, Cloud gripped the slippery copper tube tightly and narrowed his icy blue eyes at the monster. With a shout, he suddenly sprang off the pipe and hurled himself at Aps, raising his sword high above his head. From there, everything faded out of existence; only Cloud, the sword, and the monster existed for him.

Aps swung its hammy fists in a blind rage, hoping to knock Cloud out of the sky. The ex-SOLDIER's perfect timing and hard training, though, slipped into his movements almost without thinking. He leaped off Aps' beefy arm, flipped head over heels, and drove his sword into Aps' skull, cleaving the thing's head down to its large, misshapen nose. Aps didn't even scream. It gave one convulsive shudder, burbled up a mouthful of black blood, then fell into the slowly receding sewage.

Grimacing, Cloud tore his sword free of Aps' carcass and shook the loose flecks of blood off the blade. Latching the sword into its magnetic locks, he turned to face Tifa and Aerith, who were scrambling down the ladder and rushing to meet him.

"That was...amazing!" Tifa gasped, looking behind Cloud at Aps. "Where'd you learn that?" The ex-SOLDIER shrugged.

"Shouldn't we be getting to Sector 7?" Aerith asked. Cloud took another look back at Aps and sighed. With any luck at all, they'd make it before...

* * *

"The Shinra's gonna blast the pillar!" Wedge screamed from the roof. 

Barret and the others rushed outside the Seventh Heaven as Wedge scrambled down the ladder and tucked the binoculars away. "I saw 'em! Choppers all over the place, and they're loaded with troops!"

Jessie and Biggs both looked up at Barret, who scowled up at the pillar and muttered something under his breath. "Then we've gotta intercept 'em! Let's move!" he roared. AVALANCHE was quick to attention as they made a run for the pillar.

The team pushed through the thick mob of people that had gathered in front of the pillar and craned their necks up to see the helicopters that buzzed around the bottom of the plate. Barret kicked the rusted gate in and dashed up the stairs, Wedge close on his heels. Gunshots flew past his head like angry hornets; missed shots sang off the steel stairway from the soldiers withchopper packs strapped to their backs.

None of that phased him, though. All that mattered was that he got to the top of the pillar before the Shinra could detonate it.

He never heard the close buckshot behind him, or Biggs' burbling howl as the bullets ripped through his chest. Jessie did, though. Jessie heard every part of that ear splitting scream like it was her own. She whirled around on the stairs, almost slipping on the blood that had splattered on the metal. Biggs hung limply over the railing, dripping blood and groaning softly.

He flinched at Jessie's touch, but smiled weakly when she brought his head up to see. "Jessie..." he rasped, spitting red. "Heh...too bad...Cloud wasn't here...I guess...he really doesn't care...after all." Before she could say anything, though, Biggs coughed his last breath and went limp.

Jessie suddenly felt a cold shiver run up her back and tickle the hairs on her neck. She had watched Biggs die, right in front of her. She dropped his head back onto the railing; her arms would not work. She wasn't too sure how long she stood like that, in the middle of the stairway, watching Biggs' body as if she expected him to spring right back up and leap into the action.

It wasn't until Wedge lumbered back down the stairs and slowly tore her away that she realized where she was. She shook him off, though, and nodded. "I'll be alright," she said weakly. Gritting her teeth, she charged past Wedge and flew up the stairs.

* * *

Cloud wiped the cobwebs off the manhole cover and pushed it aside. Peeking out from the concrete, he saw dozens of abandoned train cars laying almost on top one another, in a sad state of disrepair. Lights flickered on and off constantly, and the slow buzz of sparks flew from some of the exposed wires that had dropped into puddles of stagnant water. The old train graveyard smelled like oil, burnt rubber, and distant memories. A thick air of depression hung in the graveyard like a blanket, and Cloud could feel it settle on his mind, even as he climbed out of the manhole to help Tifa out. 

"I hate it here," she said softly, rubbing her arms. "It's cold and lonely. Feels like a tomb here." Looking around, Aerith seemed to share that sentiment, but she kept it to herself.

"We're close," Cloud said, starting off into the maze of trains. "I can see the top of the pillar from here, but I don't know how much time we have. Let's hurry."

Flaming barrels of oil were strewn about the train graveyard, giving light to wherever the train lights had gone out. The bright fires cast shadows of broken steel across the tarnished sides of the other trains, making them dance and jump constantly. Rats scurried from corner to corner, knocking over debris and making Tifa even more worried than before.

The inside of the train cars were surprisingly well preserved. An old dining car led the way from one part of the graveyard to the next, and the inside looked much better than the sad, dismal outside. The plush red leather seats were covered with dust and torn in a few places, but were otherwise still in good condition. The menu had been shattered by what looked like bullets, and so had the mirror beneath it. Old soda and beer taps had been broken in half, their shining ivory heads lying on the floor like useless garbage. But it is all useless now, Tifa thought sadly. She began to wonder what the last days of this dining car were; what the people were like, and maybe what they had discussed. Back then, the Shinra had been a weapons company, not a mako industry. People probably sat here during lunch and picked up the newspaper, flipping through it and grumbling about the sad state of affairs in Wutai. The war had taken a terrible toll on everybody, especially Wutai. They had lost.

"Tifa, are you coming?" Cloud asked, poking his head back into the car. Tifa jumped, and realized that she had been staring at herself in the mirror for almost five minutes. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said, brushing a lock of hair from her face. "I was just...thinking."

The light was better in the north part of the graveyard, where most of the newer models were stored. Even the train tracks could be seen from here, and those led directly to the Sector 7 train station. Tifa's stomach was doing backflips as she thought more about Barret and the others. She hoped they could hold out until they got there. Please, let them hold on.

"Don't worry, Tifa, we'll get there," Cloud said, climbing up onto an empty boxcar. Tifa jumped; had she been speaking out loud?

Cloud jumped from empty car to empty car, almost automatically. He didn't even know what he was doing, he just did it. His mind was elsewhere; Tifa could see it in his face. Even when he had spoken to her, he sounded distant and hollow. She wondered sometimes where Cloud went when he wasn't thinking about anything. Every time she asked, though, she only got a cold glare or a shrug of the shoulders. She could never accept that Cloud was thinking about "nothin'" as he put it sometimes.

He was the first down the steel girder that made a ramp down to the cobblestone street, and the first into the train station. Just outside, the fringes of a crowd could be seen around the gateway to the pillar. Without hesitating, Cloud leaped into the throng.

"It's still standing!" Tifa shouted over the roar of the crowd. "We made it!"

"Wait, do you hear that?" Aerith asked, pointing up. "It sounds like gunfire." Cloud dug his heels into the dirt to stop his forward charge and jumped back to where the girls were. There was indeed what sounded like shotgun bursts and repeated blasts from a Gatling gun of some kind. Teetering on the edge of the pillar platform was a bright yellow splotch that wielded a pair of handguns and kept looking around. He was caught from behind, though, and dropped off the platform to the dirt far below.

Wedge hit the ground with a bone shattering crunch. Warm, wet blood flew from his mouth in a dark crimson fountain and splattered over the packed dirt. Cloud was on his knees next to him in a flash, and brought Wedge's head up in the crook of his elbow. Wedge blinked, then smiled around red teeth. "C...Cloud..." he gasped. "I guess...Biggs...was wrong...you're not...dead..." Cloud scowled and looked up at the pillar. "Barret's...up top...Cloud...you gotta help...urk..."Wedge went limp.

Without saying a word, Cloud sprang to his feet and swung his sword in a wide arc, blazing up the stairs. Tifa watched him go for a moment, then turned to Aerith, who had a mixed look on her face; half of her wanted to cry, the other wanted to vomit. Tifa took the other girl by the shoulders and gave her a reassuring smile. "Aerith, there's still time. In the Seventh Heaven, a little girl, Marlene, is waiting inside. Can you..."

"Get her to safety?" Aerith finished, wiping a tear away and sniffing. "Sure. You go with Cloud. I'll get Marlene somewhere safe." She shook out of Tifa's grasp and ran into the slums, letting Tifa follow Cloud up the stairs.

Cloud's face was a thunderhead ready to burst, and his eyes were solid blue ice. Without word or mercy, he stormed up the spiral staircase, splitting guards in half like ripe melons. A trail of carnage lay behind him, with anyone not dead clutching gaping wounds and praying silently for death. If was like this, until Cloud found Jessie.

Jessie sat huddled in a corner of the stairway, clamping shut a gunshot wound in her stomach with both hands. Three more had torn completely through the thin armor she wore, but a smile still crossed her face. "Cloud..." she said softly. "I'm glad I could see you...one last time."

"Don't say last!" Cloud snapped, glancing up at the pillar. Jessie waved a hand, though, and kept talking. "No...this...is right. Maybe this is how...we're to pay...for all our sins..." Leaning her head back against the railing, Jessie died.

Cloud looked up, a deep snarl on his face, and saw Barret running around the pillar platform, guns blazing and curses flying. When the ex-SOLDIER reached the top of the pillar, Barret almost smiled, and would have if he could tear himself away from the Shinra helicopters that had begun to swarm around the platform. Tifa dashed up the stairs behind him, pale and on the verge of tears.

"Yo, where the hell've you been!" Barret snapped. Cloud waved him off. "Yeah, well, look out, 'cause we got company!"

Cloud spun around just in time to see Reno leap off a chopper and dash for the control panel on the pillar. Humming tunelessly to himself as he pushed each button for access, Reno smirked and chuckled. By the time Cloud got around to getting a grip on him, Reno jumped away from the access board and laughed. "That's it, boys n' girls! Once again, the Turks are gonna bring the house down, yo!"

"Tifa, turn that thing off!" Cloud shouted. Reno's smirk only widened as he reached inside his pocket and pulled a four foot steel rod that buzzed in Cloud's ears.

"I can't have you do that," he muttered, flipping a switch. Reno's electric shock baton sparked to life, trapping Tifa inside a solid yellow barrier of light. She pounded on the walls and shouted silently, but nothing escaped her lips. "Nobody gets in the way of Reno and the Turks, yo!"

Cloud's grip on Reno tightened as he swung the Turk around and slammed his gloved fist into Reno's face. The Turk staggered back, clutching at his bloody nose and scowling. When he moved his hand, though, he saw just enough of Cloud to brace himself, as a hard fist drove itself into Reno's stomach, followed by a sharp uppercut.

Up against the railing, Reno wiped the already drying blood off his upper lip and smirked again, chuckling. He spun the baton in his hand a few times, then advanced on Cloud again. The ex-SOLDIER backed up a few steps and swung his sword free again, parrying Reno's downward slash. The Turk thrusted, and Cloud spun to the side, swinging as he went.

Reno shifted his weight to one foot and dropped to the platform rolling, then sprang to his feet and whirled around just in time to block another shot from Cloud's huge sword. The two clashed like that, sword against baton, for what seemed like forever. Barret had never seen any of the First Class SOLDIERs in action, but if they were this good, he saw why. Only the Third Class were used to guard the Shinra Tower. The Second Class were stationed in Junon, but where were the First Class?

It almost looked like a dance, with Cloud and Reno masters of their own weapons; skilled patrons of a deadly art. Cloud swung his massive sword with ease; ducking, dodging and weaving like the sword weighed next to nothing. Reno switched from right hand to left hand, and even to both hands almost as fast as Barrett could follow. Sparks flew and sizzled on the steel platform as the weapons clashed, but neither ex-SOLDIER or Reno showed any sign of fatigue.

Grumbling, Barret turned around and began to thump on the trap Tifa had been enclosed in. One heavy hit shattered it to pieces, and Barret barely managed to catch Tifa before she hit the ground, panting. "Hard...to breath," she muttered. "Where's Cloud?"

Barret pointed over to the fight, which to Tifa's blurry eyes, had become a tangle of arms, legs, and steel. Shaking her head and blinking, Tifa sped over to the access panel and started pushing buttons at random. She found the security lock she was looking for, but a sixteen digit code was needed from a Shinra Rank 5 employee or higher to access control of the pillar. "This is nuts," she said. "It's not any ordinary time bomb."

"That's right," a deep, rich voice shouted over the roar of helicopter blades. Tifa and Barret turned around to find yet another Turk standing in the hatch of a chopper, a wry grin on his face. Tseng's long, dark hair was kicked up by the chopping of the helicopter blades, and his dark eyes glinted as he watched Reno push Cloud off. "It'll go off if any stupid jerk tries to screw with it."

Reno scowled and ducked back to the chopper, leaping from the edge of the platform to the hatch with room to spare. Barret was about to follow, but Tseng raised a gloved hand and shook his head. "Sorry, but nobody gets in the way of Tseng and the Turks!" Reaching to the side, he pulled Aerith into view and wrenched an arm behind her back. She tightened her lips to hold back a shout, but looked down at Cloud and the others through a misty haze.

"Aerith!" Cloud shouted. "Tseng, you bastard! What're you gonna do with her!"

Tseng shrugged and tightened his grip. "I haven't decided yet. You should thank me, though. For letting you all see each other one last time. See, the plate's gonna fall any second now." As if on cue to his words, the concrete pillar began to erupt in a fiery blaze. Chunks of solid cement fell from the pillar and crashed to the ground, smashing ancient piles of rubble and kicking up clouds of dust. "Think you can get out in time?" Laughing, the chopper swerved around and headed back to the Shinra Tower.

All around Cloud and the others, dust began to fill the air as balls of fire lept from the pillar and sent more chunks of concrete dropping to the dirt far below. Within minutes, the dry, stale wood of the slums began to catch fire. Barret let go a string of curses and looked around for any other exit as the stairs had been demolished in the first blast.

"What about this cable?" Tifa asked, grabbing a hold of a large steel hook. The hook was attached to a thick black cable that ran up the length of the plate, and overlooked all of Sector 6. Barret grabbed a hold of the hook, then hoisted Tifa up onto the railing. "C'mon, Cloud! We're gonna bail!"

Cloud jumped onto Barret's shoulders, then grabbed Tifa and held on to both vest and suspenders as Barret took a deep breath and swung off the platform. Hot, sticky air whipped past Cloud's face and made his eyes water. Turning around, he saw the pillar crumble into nothingness, and the plate slowly beginning to collapse.

AVALANCHE swung through the gates of Sector 6 and crashed into the small playground. Behind them, the enormous Sector 7 plate was torn from the steel cables that helped hold it up topside. The entire city on the plate lurched to the side, shorting out all electronics in the entire sector. TVs went blank, lights flickered off, and computers went dead. Beneath the plate, in the slums, the people watched on in horror as the bottom of the city slowly dropped from the sky and crushed the tops of the tallest buildings in the slums. Explosions rocked the entire city of Midgar to its core, and the screams of all of Sector 7 flew through the still, empty night.

Far up on the top floor of the Shinra Tower, President Shinra watched down at the destruction of the plate, and smiled to himself.

Bang, you're dead.


	7. Secrets Revealed

_Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I updated this. Time tends to fly, summer got in the way, and I'm sorry that this chapter has been 3+ months in the making._

_

* * *

_

_Chapter 7: Secrets Revealed_

Explosions continued to rock the earth and the air was so heavy with smoke and dust, that it made it almost impossible to breathe. Just outside the gates to Sector 7, the surviving members of AVALANCHE had made a crash landing from their death defying escape from the pillar. Every bone in his body ached. _Good_, Cloud thought. _If I can feel pain, I'm still alive. _Pulling himself to his feet, Cloud surveyed the scene. The playground that he was just at several hours ago with Aerith now looked like a junkyard with debris strewn all over the place. A steel girder had pierced the slide where they had talked just several hours ago. Cloud heard a groan to his right and saw Tifa starting to come to. Cloud was by her side in an instant.

"Tifa! Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, I'm guess. But what about Barret?"

As if on cue, a string of curses and gunfire erupted nearby. Cloud looked up to see Barret shooting the rubble from the collapsed plate that now blocked the gate to Sector 7. Even when the clip emptied, the barrels still spun for several seconds before the big man fell to his knees crying and screaming for Marlene.

Tifa and Cloud walked up to Barret, not sure what to say. Tifa kneeled down next to Barret and put a tender hand on his shoulder. "Barret, I believe Marlene is safe." Barret just looked up at her. "I told Aerith to get her to safety."

"R, really?" Barret said wiping the tears from his eyes. "But, Biggs...Wedge...Jessie..."

"All three of them were on the pillar," Cloud said coldly.

"Think I don't know that?" Barret said with a hint of anger in his voice. "But, all of us fought together. I don't wanna think of them as dead!"

"And the people in Sector 7," Tifa replied on the verge of tears.

"This is all screwed up!" Barret continued. "They destroyed an entire village just to get to us! They killed so many people..."

"Are you saying that it's our fault?" Tifa interrupted. "Innocent people lost their lives because of us?"

"No Tifa! That ain't it! Hell no!" Barret exclaimed. "It's the damn Shinra! It's always been the Shinra! They're evil and destroyin' our planet just to build their power and line their own damn pockets with gold! If we don't get rid of them, they're gonna kill this planet! Our fight ain't never gonna be over until we get rid of them!"

Tifa looked at the ground with sadness and a look of doubt on her face. "I don't know."

"What don't you know?" Barret said with a confused look on his face. "You don't believe me?"

"It's not that," Tifa replied. "I'm not sure about...my feelings."

Barret took a look at Cloud, who had his back turned to them. "An' what about you?"

Cloud looked over his shoulder at Barret, but his mind was elsewhere. It was in the Shinra Tower and he was determined to get up there and get Aerith away from that God forsaken place. Sighing, Cloud started walking towards the road to Sector 5.

"Yo!" Barret yelled at Cloud, but he was ignored. Barret turned to Tifa. "Where's he think he's goin'?

"Oh! Aerith!"

"Oh yeah, that girl on the chopper. What's the story there?"

"I, uh, don't really know. But she's the one I left Marlene with."

"Damn, Marlene!" Barret yelled as he went to follow Cloud. Barret then turned back to Tifa. "Tifa. There ain't no turnin' back now." With that, Barret ran after Cloud.

Tifa started walking off after them, but stopped and looked back at the wreckage of Sector 7. _It's all my fault, _she thought to herself. With that she ran off to catch up with Cloud and Barret.

* * *

Cloud walked up to the front door of Aerith's house. _God, how am I going to break this news to her mother_, he thought to himself. He took a look over his shoulder at Tifa and Barret, sighed, and then opened the front door. The first thing they saw when the door opened was Elmyra Gainsborough sitting on the couch drying her eyes. She looked up at the group and immediately recognized the blonde ex-SOLDIER. 

"Cloud, wasn't it? I take it this is about Aerith?"

"I'm sorry, but the Shinra have her."

"I know. They took her from here."

Cloud didn't know what to say after that. Being in SOLDIER didn't exactly teach him how to handle emotional situations in a tender, caring way. But still, the question had to be asked. "Elmyra, why is Shinra after Aerith?"

Elmyra looked up at the ceiling, and then sighed. Bringing her eyes back to Cloud. "Aerith is an Ancient. The sole survivor."

"What did you say," Barret said butting into the conversation. "I mean, aren't you her mother?"

"Not her real mother. It must have been fifteen years ago, during the war. My husband was sent off to the front. Some far away place called Wutai. One day, I went to the train station because I received a letter saying my husband was coming home on leave. But when I got to the station, he wasn't on the train. I clung to the thought that his leave was just canceled. I went to the station everyday hanging on to that belief. Then one day, I arrived at the station and saw a beautiful young woman laying on the ground with her little girl begging and pleading for her to get up. Her dying words to me were 'Please take Aerith somewhere safe.' My husband was gone, I had no child, and I was very lonely. So I took her home with me. Aerith and I became close very quickly. That child loved to talk. She used to talk to me about everything. She told me she escaped from some kind of research laboratory somewhere and that her mother had already returned to the planet, so she wasn't lonely."

"Returned to the planet," Barret interrupted.

"I didn't know what she meant," Elmyra explained. "I asked if she meant a star in the sky, but she said it was this planet. She was a mysterious child in many ways. One day, Aerith came down from her room and just blurted out 'Mom, please don't cry.' I asked her if something happened, and she said, 'Someone dear to you has just died. His spirit was coming to see you, but he already returned to the planet.' At that time I didn't believe her, but several days later, we received notice that my husband was killed in action. A lot had happened, but we were happy. Until one day..."

* * *

"Good morning ma'am. My name is Tseng and I'm with the Shinra Administrative Department of Investigation. We would like for you to return Aerith to us. We've been searching for her for a long time." 

A young Aerith looked up at the young Turk. "No! Never!" she screamed.

Tseng dropped to one knee so that he could be at eye level with the child. "Aerith, you're a special child. You are of special blood. Your real mother was an 'Ancient'." Tseng rose back up and looked at Elmyra while continuing. "The Ancients will lead us to a land of supreme happiness. Aerith will be able to bring happiness to all those in the slums. That is why Shinra would like Aerith's cooperation..."

"He's wrong! I'm not an Ancient! I'm not!" a visibly upset Aerith screamed.

Tseng smiled at the little girl. "But Aerith, surely you hear voices sometimes when you're all alone?"

"No I don't!" With that, Aerith ran up stairs to her room.

* * *

"But I knew. I knew about her mysterious powers. She tried so hard to hide them, so I acted as though I never noticed." 

The last part of the story really peeked Cloud's interest. _The Ancients,_ Cloud thought. _I know I've heard of them before, but when and where?_ Realizing that the others noticed he went off into space, he quickly got back into the conversation. "It's amazing how she's avoided the Shinra for all these years. They need her though, so they won't harm her."

"But why now?" Tifa asked rhetorically.

Elmyra looked upstairs. "She brought a little girl here with her. On the way here, Tseng found them. She probably couldn't get away fast enough. She decided to go to the Shinra in exchange for the little girl's safety."

"Aerith was caught because of Marlene!" Barret screamed. "I'm sorry. Marlene's my daughter. I'm really sorry."

"You're her father?" Elmyra said with a scolding look. "How in the world could you ever leave a child alone like that?"

Barret looked at her apologetically. "Please don't start with that. I think about it all the time. What would happen to Marlene if I... But you gotta understand somethin'. I don't got an answer. I wanna be with Marlene. But I gotta fight. 'Cause if I don't, the planet's gonna die. So I'm gonna keep fightin'! But, I'm worried 'bout Marlene. I really just wanna be with her, always. See? I'm goin' in circles now."

"I think I understand what you're saying. She's upstairs asleep. Why don't you go up and see her."

With that, Barrett quickly headed upstairs. Cloud could hear the cries of happiness as father and daughter reunited just above their heads. "So you're going after Aerith, right?" Tifa suddenly asked Cloud.

"Yeah," Cloud responded coldly.

"I'm coming with you."

That was not what Cloud wanted to hear. He'd already put one girl in danger. He wasn't about to put another one in peril, especially his childhood friend. "We'll be going right to the Shinra Headquarters. You're going to have to be prepared for the worst. That's why I don't want you to go."

"I knew you'd say that. But right now, I feel I have to push myself to the limit. If I stayed here, I'd go crazy."

Cloud turned his back to Tifa. _Why did she always have to be the brave one?_ "Very well. I'll go talk to Barret."

Cloud went upstairs to see Barret locked in a bear hug with his daughter, tears rolling down his eyes. "I'm so glad you're all right."

"Daddy, don't cry. Your whiskers hurt!" Marlene giggled.

Barret let go of her and stood back up, trying to regain his composure. He saw Cloud standing in the doorway out of the corner of his eye. "You gonna go help Aerith, right? She's done so much for me...and if it's the Shinra you're dealin' with, then I just can't sit here."

"Guess what Cloud, guess what," Marlene screamed as she ran up to Cloud. "Aerith was asking me lots of questions about you. Like 'what kind of person is Cloud?' I bet she likes you Cloud!" Cloud's face turned beat red, not knowing what to say and obviously embarrassed by the words from the six year old. "Don't worry, Cloud. I won't tell Tifa."

Marlene grabbed a hold of her father's hand, and the three of them walked back downstairs. Barret was struggling with the idea that he was going to have to leave Marlene again to go off and fight. But if he didn't, who would? And what would happen to the planet if Shinra won? No matter how painful, it was something he was just going to have to do. "I'm sorry to ask Elmyra, but can you take care of Marlene a bit longer?"

"Yes, I don't mind," she replied.

"This is a dangerous place to be right now, so you'd better go someplace else."

"I'm sure you're right. But promise me one thing. Promise me that you'll come back to her. Don't get yourself killed."

Barret then looked down at his daughter, who was not liking the prospect of seeing her father leave again as tears began to well up in her eyes. "Don't cry now honey. I know it hurts. Believe me, I'm hurtin' just as much, if not more. But we'll see each other again. Now promise me that you'll behave for Mrs. Gainsborough." Marlene nodded her head while trying to stifle her tears. "Gotta go now baby," Barret said, as father and daughter embraced one last time.

Barret, Cloud, and Tifa walked out the door into the slums of Sector 5. Marlene watched them leave from the window, and as they went out of view, she finally broke down in tears.

* * *

The surviving members of AVALANCHE continued on their way to the Sector 6 road. They knew what their mission was. It was carrying it out that was giving them problems. With the destruction of Sector 7, there was no way to take a train up to the plate. The group decided to head to Wall Market to see if they could find anything out there. Tifa looked over at Cloud and she could tell right away that he was somewhere else. She didn't know who Aerith was, but she knew that she had Cloud's attention. _Why am I getting so jealous of her?_ Tifa wondered to herself. The group had been silent for awhile, and Tifa's curiosity got the better of her. "Cloud, what are you thinking about?" 

"I'm just thinking about the Ancients," Cloud replied coldly. Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his head and a red haze started to fill his vision. _Oh no! Not again, _Cloud screamed to himself. The pain was so great that he dropped to his knees grabbing his head. Suddenly, a memory locked deep away came rushing to the front of his brain. It was that cold, dark voice he hadn't heard in five years, and he heard it as if the person was standing right next to him. _"In my veins courses the blood of the Ancients. I am one of the rightful heirs to this planet!"_

All at once, the pain subsided and his vision cleared. Cloud shook the cobwebs out, but all he could think about was the name of the person he heard in his head...Sephiroth. Tifa and Barret rushed to Cloud's side and helped him up to his feet. "Cloud, are you all right?" Tifa asked.

"Pull it together man!" Barret screamed. Cloud quickly waved them off and the trio continued on their way to Wall Market.

* * *

"Oh my God! Are we next!" 

"That damn AVALANCHE went too far!"

"AVALANCHE? I heard it was the Shinra who brought the plate down."

"You and your damn conspiracy theories!"

"Maybe I should spend more time looking up?"

The busy town of Wall Market was on the brink of anarchy in the aftermath of the Sector 7 collapse. The air was not as heavy in Wall Market, but the scent of the smoldering ruins of the Sector 7 collapse still lingered. Power had been restored to the sector, and at one of the local shops, people were herding around a television as President Shinra addressed the world. The crowd hung to every word that the president said, as he announced that AVALANCHE claimed responsibility for the collapse and that elements of SOLDIER were being mobilized in the city of Midgar. _That dirty son of a bitch,_ Barret thought. _I can't wait to give him a piece of my mind._

Cloud and the others were approaching the mansion of Don Corneo, when they saw a bunch of kids run off towards the ally adjacent to the mansion. Curious, Cloud decided to go and check it out. The ally was made up of the wall of the Corneo Mansion, and the wall that separated Sector 6 from Sector 7. Cloud finally saw what all the commotion was about, as he saw a little girl standing next to a wire. The little girl noticed them staring at the wire. "All my friends climbed up this wire to the top of the wall, but it actually leads all the way up to the upper world. Looks pretty scary."

"Awright!" Barret screamed. "We'll climb this wire!"

"Are you crazy?" Cloud said with a look of bewilderment. "There's no way we can do this. You know how far that goes up?

"There IS a way!" Barret said with excitement. "Look, what's that look like to you?"

"A normal wire," Cloud replied, not sure where the big man was going with this.

"Just a normal wire? Well to me, it looks like a golden shiny wire of hope!"

"It's the only way to get to the top so we can save Aerith," Tifa piped in.

Cloud looked up at the wire that hung from above. It appeared the wire was hanging from the junction between Sectors 6 and 7. _This is crazy, _Cloud thought. _The best plan we can come up with is to climb up fifty or so meters on a simple wire. Then, we got to avoid capture and sneak inside the Shinra Headquarters. And who knows what will be waiting for us inside there._ The ex-SOLDIER sighed, and looked back over to Barret. "Ok, that was a bad analogy, but Barret, I understand how you feel." Cloud looked up at the wire one more time before latching on to it and climbing up. Tifa and Barret followed suit as AVALANCHE began their long ascent to the top.

* * *

Hours after the collapse, activity was bristling on top of the plate. The Shinra Tower was bathed in the bright light of the massive search lights that surrounded the corporate headquarters at its base. Helicopters were constantly buzzing the skies of the metropolis. Things were just as busy at ground level, as the Shinra Military Police imposed marshal law on the streets of Midgar. Lost in all this madness, were three figures using the shadows to slowly make their approach towards the center of the city, and the massive Shinra Tower. 

Finally, after several hours that involved climbing a wire up to the plate and sneaking amongst the shadows of the city, the surviving members of AVALANCHE finally found themselves at the base of the Shinra Tower. Something was tugging at the back of Cloud's mind. They had seen plenty of the Shinra Military Police out on the streets, but they never once came across SOLDIER or the Turks. _This could get rough_, Cloud thought to himself.

"Hey Cloud, you oughta know this building well," Barret said.

"Umm, not really. Now that I think about it, this is the first time I've ever been to the headquarters," Cloud said, cursing at his memory, which seemed to be failing him a lot lately.

"I heard about this place before from some of our spies," Barret exclaimed. "Every floor above the 60th requires special access. It's not even easy for the employees to get on those floors. Probably where they took Aerith." Barret took a quick survey of the scene. "The security's pretty light now. Let's go!" Barret shouted as he started off towards the front door.

Tifa though quickly grabbed a hold of the big man's arm. "Wait a second! You're not thinking of just going right through the main entrance, are you?"

"Well what else does it look like," Barret yelled, agitated that Tifa stopped his charge. "I'm gonna kick some Shinra butt and..."

"That's not going to work! We've got to find another way," Tifa getting agitated herself, as she couldn't believe that Barret just wanted to simply walk through the front door.

"Ain't gonna be no other way! If we keep wastin' time like this, Aerith'll..."

"I know that Barret! But if we get caught here...Hey, Cloud. What should we do?"

Cloud had been watching this argument unfold and trying to figure out what to do himself. The trip just to get to the Shinra Tower had taken too long in his opinion, and he was afraid that every hour delayed could possibly lead to Aerith being moved somewhere else. If that happened, there's no telling if they would ever find her. Cloud looked over and saw a door off to the side of the main entrance with a sign over top of the door indicating it was the stairwell. Cloud knew that taking the stairs would probably be a lot better way of entering the building than through the front door. Climbing all those flights of stairs though would take a long time, time he felt they didn't have. Busting through the front door would be risky, but it offered him the quick resolution he was seeking.

"Tifa, I know you're against it, but busting through the front door is our only option."

"Hell yeah!" Barret yelled, as he loaded a clip into his gun arm. "Let's kick some Shinra ass!"

"Easy Barret. We're not going in there guns blazing. Our goal is to get to the elevators in the lobby, not to shoot up the lobby. If we're lucky, we may be able to just walk in." _If we're lucky,_ Cloud thought to himself.

With that, the three entered the spacious lobby of the Shinra Tower. It didn't take long for the receptionist to notice these three suspicious looking characters coming into the lobby. "Excuse me," the lady said. "If you don't have an appointment, you'll just have to..."

Barret cut the lady off when he whirled his gun arm around and pointed it right at the receptionist. "We don't need no appointment. This is a 'mergency! Anyone who don't wanna get their face bashed in better git outta the way!"

"OH MY GOD!"

"Who do you think they are?"

"Y, you don't think that's AVALANCHE, do you?"

The lobby of the Shinra Tower went from business as usual to mass hysteria as soon as Barret made his little speech. Employees started ducking for cover wherever they could find it. The receptionist ducked under the desk, unable to reach for the button to trigger the silent alarm without Barret seeing her.

"FREEZE!"

Cloud looked off to his left, as three guards with handguns drawn came running up on them. They weren't even military police, these three. They were just low rent security guards. Cloud smirked, as these guys were simply no match for an ex-SOLDIER like himself. Cloud took off in a dead sprint toward the aggressors. The guards, seeing this guy charging at them, immediately came to a stop and started discharging their firearms. Cloud's SOLDIER reflexes kicked in, as he started somersaulting in an effort to dodge the bullets. No matter where the guards aimed, they simply couldn't hit him. Cloud rolled to the ground and then sprung up into the air and planted his right foot into the face of the guard on the right, then in one motion, dropped to the ground and used his left leg to kick the legs out from under the guard in the middle. Finally, Cloud used his arms to spring himself back up off the ground and delivered a brutal roundhouse kick to the last guard. The guard in the middle got back up to his feet, but Cloud swung around and nailed the guy with a left hook that knocked the guy unconscious.

Tifa was awestruck by Cloud's display. She had never seen anyone move so quickly and so gracefully. She was considered to be a very good martial artist herself, but even she couldn't do what Cloud just did. Barret on the other hand, was disappointed that Cloud left none for himself. _Damn showoff, _Barret said to himself.

AVALANCHE made their way to the bank of elevators at the back of the lobby and boarded the only one that was at the ground floor. Cloud looked at the number board and noticed that it only went up to the 59th floor. They would have to figure out a way to get to the special access floors once they got there. Cloud pushed the button for the 59th floor and the elevator made its way up the tower. Cloud was disappointed in himself. They couldn't even get out of the lobby without a fight. He was sure by now the whole tower knew they were here.

"What's wrong, Cloud?" Tifa asked, seeing Cloud's pained expression in the reflection of the doors.

"I didn't want to start a ruckus till we saved Aerith. I should have known that was impossible though."

For some reason, Barret started to laugh. Cloud turned around to look at the big man. "What is it? You're givin' me the willies."

"So there are times when even you fight for other people. I'm impressed."

A scowl came over Cloud's face. "Who cares if you're impressed?"

Barret grabbed the back of his neck. "Y'know, I ain't good at sayin' this, but...sorry, for lotsa things."

Suddenly, the elevator came to an abrupt stop. Cloud was wondering if he had accidentally pushed the stop button, but that thought quickly left his head when the doors opened and he felt something jabbed into his side.

"Hands up!"

Cloud looked over his shoulder and could easily make out the bright blue uniform of a Shinra MP with his rifle jammed into Cloud's ribcage. There were two more behind him with rifles drawn. Cloud knew that trying to pull his sword out of its magnetic locks in such a tight space would be suicide, but Barret was in perfect firing position. Cloud looked at Barret and winked.

Cloud started to slowly raise his hands, but then used his left hand to grab the barrel of the rifle. He quickly spun around and threw a right hook right into the jaw of the man. Cloud spun out of the way, and Barret quickly fired his gatling gun at the other two guards, killing them before they could even get a shot off.

"C'mon Cloud, let's get this show on the road," Barret screamed.

"We got a problem guys," Tifa piped in. "The elevator won't work. They must've locked it down from the security office."

"Well, they've probably locked down all the elevators by now," Cloud said to the group. Cloud quickly looked around and spotted a door to the stairwell. "There, we'll just take the stairs the rest of the way. We're on the 50th floor, so it shouldn't be too tough."

AVALANCHE quickly made their way up to the very top of the stairwell, which came to an end on the 59th floor, the highest floor for general employees and visitors. Cloud slowly opened the stairwell door and noticed two glass elevators side by side. _Must be the elevators for the top floors,_ Cloud said to himself. Unfortunately, the elevators were being guarded, and the suits were unmistakable. They were being guarded by a couple members of the Turks. There was no way around them though. The elevator they were guarding was the only ticket for AVALANCHE to get up to the floors above.

"Barret," Cloud said as he looked over at the big man. "Cover me."

In one swift motion, Cloud took off towards the two Turks and drew his massive sword from the magnetic locks on his back. The two Turks quickly saw Cloud coming and one reached for his radio to call for help, but Barret shot him before he could make the call. The other Turk pulled out his baton and tried to fight Cloud hand-to-hand. Cloud quickly realized that this guy wasn't on the same level as Reno in combat prowess. The Turk went on the offensive, but Cloud easily parried every slash the Turk made. Finally, Cloud found an opening, and used his sword to force the Turk's baton down to the ground. Cloud quickly spun around and kicked the Turk in the gut. With the Turk in a prone position, the ex-SOLDIER spun around with his sword and buried it into the Turk.

Barret and Tifa rushed up to Cloud, who was searching the Turk's dead body, and found what he was desperately hoping he would find...a key card to the upper floors.

"I don't think he'll be needing his access card anymore," Cloud told the others as he got up and headed for the glass elevators. Cloud swiped the card through the reader, and the red light signaling the elevator was locked turned to green and the elevator doors opened up. The board on the elevator only lit up to the 66th floor, but there were buttons all the way up to the 70th floor. Cloud pushed the button to the 66th floor and the elevator made it's way up even higher over the city of Midgar.

* * *

_As always, all comments are appreciated. This chapter seemed a little rough, considering it was written off and on over the last several months. I'm usually my harshest critic though, so maybe it is just me._


	8. JENOVA

_Chapter 8: JENOVA_

Cloud's sulky reflection split in half, and quickly came together again in a panic. The 66th floor was the meeting hall for the Shinra Executive Committee, and the entire band of them had almost seen AVALANCE walk in through their front doors. Cloud recognized President Shinra and Heidegger, that gut could only belong to one person, but the other two, were unfamiliar. He hadn't taken the time to look closely, though.

"Are they gone?" Tifa asked softly, looking through the clear glass of the elevator into a window of the Shinra Tower. Cloud sighed and took his finger off the "Close Door" button. When the doors swung open again, the hallway was empty. Taking a deep breath, the ex-SOLDIER stepped out into the hall.

Directly in front of him was a large, iron door that had the Shinra logo planted on it down the middle. Small, soft voices came from the inside of the room, and a voice was raised once or twice, usually directed at somebody named "Palmer". Cloud put his ear up to the door to try and hear better, but the door was too thick. He would have kicked it, if there hadn't been executives behind it.

"Damn, I gotta find the can," Barret muttered, and stalked off down the hall.

Tifa and Cloud sat down in front of the door, listening to the soft voice as best they could. The utter silence in the empty hallway was eerie, and Tifa shifted around just for the sake of hearing something move once in a while.

Even with his sharp ears, Cloud couldn't pick up much more of what they were saying. None of it sounded important though. Most of it was about "rocket ships", "development plans", "reactor construction", and so on. He was surprised to hear at least one high, feminine voice. The president seemed to be keeping quiet.

Cloud jumped back to his feet when he heard Barret stomping down the hall. The big man grabbed the ex-SOLDIER by the arm and began to drag him back down the hallway until Cloud wrenched free and scowled. "What's gotten into you?" he snapped.

"Voices!" Barret whispered. "I heard 'em in the bathroom!"

Cloud and Tifa exchanged glances. Had the stress finally made him snap? A lot had happened recently, Sector 7 fell, Aerith was gone, Jessie and the others. "Look, I know it sounds weird, but you gotta believe me! I'll show you myself!"

As soon as Cloud stepped into the bathroom, he heard sharp, clear voices that seemed to flow from the ceiling. He heard Heidegger's gruff laugh and the woman's voice again, though her chuckle was just as loud. Another light voice tried to speak up, but a thicker one butted in. Cloud tapped on the ceiling and blinked. "What...?" was all he got to.

"The ventilation shaft!" Tifa said, running into an empty stall. Jumping up onto a toilet, she pried the grate off an air duct and hauled herself inside. "I can hear them perfectly from up here." She reached a hand down, which Cloud took wordlessly. After the ex-SOLDIER pulled himself into the vent, he and Tifa both grabbed Barret by the arms and pulled him up.

Down the way they had come in the hallway was a large grate, and the voices were even louder than before. Cloud scrambled down to the other end of the vent and peered down into the executive room. Sitting around a table that almost took up the entire room was the Shinra Executive Committee.

Heidegger, the head of the Peace Preservation Corps, sat at the right side next to whom Cloud guessed was Palmer. Heidegger's gut rolled when he laughed, and it made the military honors on his shirt bounce. He also stroked his thick black beard whenever something interested him.

Palmer was far shorter than Heidegger, who was short in his own right, but outweighed Heidegger easily. Palmer's bald head shone in the powerful lights that walled the meeting room, and he rubbed his greasy hands together eagerly at something. His light brown suit was wrinkled, and even from here, Cloud spotted a ketchup stain.

Sitting across the table from Palmer was the source of the feminine voice; Cloud recognized her now that he saw who she was. Scarlet was the head of the Weapons Development department, and ran the SOLDIER program in league with Heidegger. It frustrated her to no end, though, that Heidegger had taken control of the Turks for himself. Scarlet also took a liking to flimsy dresses, and the one she had on was no exception. A think gold chain held both corners of the vest she wore together, and it didn't even reach her waist. The skirts she wore stretched to the floor, but split down the side and allowed her leg to freely escape the confines of her dress. She had been at the SOLDIER inauguration, when Cloud had..._SOLDIER inauguration_?

Cloud shook his head and turned to the last member of the board. Reeve held a calculator in his hand, and kept removing the pencil he had from behind one ear to jot notes down on a pad of paper. It seemed that if he wasn't twirling his pencil, he was scratching at his goatee and muttering to himself.

"I have the damage estimates," Reeve said, dropping the notepad onto the table. President Shinra sat the end of the huge table, leaning back in his chair with his hands folded in his lap. "According to our figures, the cost of rebuilding Sector 7 is over seven billion dollars. And I might add, sir, that I'm not including all the urban planning, investments, insurance costs, possible lawsuits, compensation, employee benefits..."

"We're not rebuilding Sector 7," the president said flatly.

Reeve's calculator dropped from his numbed fingers and cracked on the floor. He stared at the president in disbelief for a moment before squatting down to get his calculator. "Then, the Ancients?"

President Shinra spun in his chair to look out the window at the eternal night of Midgar. "They're no longer a problem. The Promised Land is as good as ours."

Cloud heard the door open again, allowing a sixth figure in a lab coat to shuffle in. The president smiled to himself, but wiped it from his face as he turned back around to face the gaunt figure. "Hojo." The scientist raised his head from the clipboard as his name was called. "How's the girl?"

Professor Hojo pushed his wire-frame glasses higher up onto his long nose and sighed. His dark hair was tied back and almost hung to his waist, but his hair on top of his head was slowly creeping backwards.

"As a specimen, she is inferior to her mother," Hojo said. Every word sounded forced and flat, like the professor was bored with everything around him. "So far, though, the difference is only around eighteen percent which is better than I had hoped."

President Shinra's face showed no emotion. "How long will the research take, then?"

Hojo shrugged and place the clipboard under his arm. "Probably about a hundred and twenty years," he said. Every member of the board, even the president, stared at him. "Perhaps longer. It'll be impossible to finish within our lifetimes, or even the lifespan of the girl. So please, stop goggling at me. You look like a bunch of dried carp."

Cloud snickered in spite of himself.

"We were thinking of breeding her," Hojo continued. "That way, we could create a life form that could withstand our research."

The president sniffed, then threw a binder across the table at the professor. Hojo grabbed the binder just before it flew off the table and began to flip through it. Nodding, he shuffled out of the room.

"On a final note, I've decided we're going to raise the Mako rates in each area," President Shinra said. Reeve turned back from watching Hojo leave and sighed. "Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, with the plate coming down and all...the people might grow to hate the Shinra."

Heidegger laughed and slapped the table. "Gya ha haa! Those ignorant slobs won't hate us; they'll trust us even more! After all, we're the ones who saved them from AVALANCHE!"

Barret's face flushed a deep crimson, and he almost jumped out of the vent to pounce the fat man.

Palmer, though, was nearly bouncing up and down in his seat singing. "Rate hike! Rate hike! Tra la la...hey, don't forget to include the space program in the budget!"

President Shinra turned to the left of the table. "Reeve, you and Scarlet will divide the extra income. Raise the Mako rate seven percent in each area." Palmer almost shrieked as he dropped his face onto the table.

"That concludes the meeting," the president said. Giving each staff member a sheet of paper with two carbon copies glued to the back, he left the office. Scarlet was the last one out, looking up at the ceiling and muttering, "Something stinks..."

When the board was gone, Cloud let out a relieved sigh and turned to Barret. "They were talking about Aerith...right?" The big man shrugged as best he could inside the tight vent. "We should follow them." The ex-SOLIDER scooted backwards until his feet hit empty air. With a grunt, he dropped down onto the toilet and waited for the others before heading back out into the hall.

By the time Cloud had reached the end of the hall, the doors were closed and locked again. Hojo shuffled around the corner, muttering to himself. Glancing around the corner, Cloud watched as Hojo swiped his card key through the magnetic lock on the door, snapping at a secretary as she passed with an armload of paperwork. Grumbling, the professor stalked up the stairs.

Cloud rushed forward and planted a foot in the sliding door to stop it from shutting again. "So, that's Hojo...I remember him," Barret said. "He's the one workin' on Aerith. Cloud, you said you knew him, right?"

The ex-SOLDIER grabbed the sliding door and heaved. "I...don't know...this is the...first time...I've...really seen 'im..." With a lurch and a horrible grinding crunch, the door slid open. Cloud shook his hands and gave a deep sigh before rushing upstairs.

The 67th floor of the Shinra Tower was dimly lit. The only source of light came from the flickering fluorescent lights in the ceiling, and those were placed only at every few feet, leaving gaping holes of blackness stretched throughout the halls. Hojo's hollow footsteps echoed through the gloomy hallway, leading around to the main lab area. As Cloud followed, something began to pull on him the closer he got to Hojo's lab. The professor's rhythmic footsteps became crashes of thunder in his head. He could hear his heart leaping into his throat with every breath he took. He thought he was going to black out.

"Cloud?" Tifa grabbed him by the shoulders and gave him a shake. "Hey, what is it? We've got to keep moving, remember?" The ex-SOLDIER snapped out of his head and blinked. How long had he been standing in the hallway, staring at nothing? Shrugging the feeling of icy hands around his neck off, he crept closer to Hojo's lab.

Professor Hojo stood in his research center in front of an elevator surrounded by thick glass. A low growl came from the red creature inside that was curled up on itself, but kept an eye out at Hojo. Almost crying out in surprise, Cloud swallowed his shock and jumped behind a tower of crates. The professor turned around to admit one of his assistants inside, smiling. "Is this the one we're using today?" he asked.

"Yes," Hojo said, signing the papers he had under his arm and turning back to the red beast. "We'll be using the lower level today. Turn on the elevator." Nodding, the nondescript assistant spun around and headed back for the control room. Hojo tapped on the thick glass and sighed. "My precious specimen..." he muttered."Though you may not see it, this is all for the benefit of science. I'm sure you could appreciate that much." The red beast simply uncoiled itself and rose to its haunches, snarling and leaning up against the glass. Hojo met it glare for glare, then turned around and headed back the way he came.

When he was gone, Tifa stepped out from behind the desk she had hidden under and walked over to the glass cage. "Did he just say...specimen?" she asked softly, tapping on the glass. The red beast looked up at her with fire in his eyes, but dropped back down to four legs and sat. "Poor thing..."

Cloud was about to suggest they free the animal, when something else crossed his mind. _Help me_, something echoed inside his head. _Free me!_

Shaking his head, Cloud looked around for the voice. Just to his right, he found a thick steel dome that hummed softly. That pulling sensation washed over him again, more strongly than before. His legs worked almost by themselves as he staggered over to the bright purple light that flew from the only window of the dome. Wiping away the fog, Cloud peered inside.

A tall, quivering figure stood inside with its arms laced behind its back. Her back, more appropriately, if the slender figure suggested anything. Covered in throbbing veins from head to toe, she floated in the dome lifelessly. Cables, tubes, and wires ran in and out of her arms, legs and neck. The neck is what got Cloud's attention, though.

_Help me..._she called out to him. _Free me...my child..._ She was speaking in Cloud's mind, but the thing inside was headless.

Cloud's head began to spin, and he almost flew back from the dome, snarling. When Tifa heard him crash into the boxes, she ran from the glass cage and dropped down next to Cloud. She grabbed his shoulders and tried to shake him out of his daze, but he only kept repeating, "Jenova...is Sephiroth's...they brought it here...?"

"Inside?" Barret muttered, moving over to the dome. Peering inside the window, Barret harrumphed and stepped away. "Where's its goddamn head?" he snapped. "C'mon...this whole thing's gettin' weird." He helped Tifa lift Cloud back to his feet. The ex-SOLDIER seemed to snap out of the trance he had been in once he was back up. Blinking, he looked around at both Tifa and Barret, who looked back and shrugged.

"Thanks," Cloud said quickly. "Let's keep after Hojo. Is he upstairs?"

Tifa nodded and slid open a metal grate to reveal a service elevator. "We can use this to get up," she said, stepping inside. It was crowded in the small elevator with all three of them, but the ride was short. Up to the next floor, where Hojo was standing before a larger glass cage. A control booth hung above and behind him up on the wall, where his assistant was busying himself inside.

Cloud pulled his huge sword from the magnetic locks on his back and began to advance on Hojo. The professor simply smiled. "Are you planning to kill me with that?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the cage. "I wouldn't, if I were you." Hojo switched on the lights in the cage. Sitting inside on here knees was Aerith, wiping an eye with the back of her hand. "You see, this is all very delicate equipment. Who could operate it if I were gone, hmm?" Cloud grumbled and twisted his hands on the hilt of his sword.

"Step aside!" Barret shouted, cocking his gun-arm. Before Cloud or Hojo could protest, Barret opened fire on the cage. Bullets flew, most of them bouncing off the thick glass, but a few struck home and began to tear the door from its metal hinges. The big man stopped firing long enough to grab the door and give one huge heave. It was easily ripped off the cage, letting Cloud dash inside and drop down next to Aerith.

The girl flung her arms around Cloud and sniffed. "I knew you'd come," she said softly.

A low, throaty roar suddenly rose behind the ex-SOLDIER. As he spun around to grab his sword, he saw the red beast leap out of the cage one floor down from the specimen elevator and tackle Hojo. The professor hit the floor, and covered up his face, screaming.

"Tifa! Hey, Tifa!"

Tifa snapped out of her trance from watching the red cat-like creature pounce on Hojo and whirled on Cloud. "Tifa, take Aerith somewhere safe. We've still go Hojo to deal with." Nodding, Tifa took Aerith to the elevator.

Cloud stepped out of the cage, and tripped, falling face-first onto the cold, hard floor. _That…was really stupid_, he thought bitterly. When he looked back to see what had snagged him, he saw a thick green tentacle wrapped around his boot. Cloud scrambled onto his back and tried to pull his foot free, but the appendage had a powerful grip.

"That one is a rather ferocious specimen," somebody growled. The red beast stalked up next to Cloud and sniffed. "We should be able to hold it off, though, if we work together."

The life of a SOLDIER is full of surprises. Cloud had seen things and done things he would have never thought possible since joining the Shinra elite. Visited Mako reactors, driven high-tech battle weapons, used the latest Materia, and many other things that barred naming. All of it was right on the tip of his dry tongue, but his head was too dizzy to sort them out. _This_ was new.

"It…talks?" he gasped.

"I'll talk all you want later," the red beast snapped. "Perhaps we should concentrate on…him?"

The plant-like specimen pulled itself out from the lower floor and charged Cloud, flailing its thick tentacles. The ex-SOLDIER lurched backwards, settled his weight onto his wrists, and sprung backwards. He cart wheeled like that several times before settling his feet and swinging his sword, striking home and severing one clawed arm.

The thing grabbed Cloud's shoulder with its good arm, and wrapped its tentacles around his waist. Giving a mighty heave, it threw Cloud clear across the room and into the far wall. As it advanced, it was met with a hail of bullets from its right. Spinning to face Barret, the specimen roared with only half a head and a mouthful of sharp teeth. The big man continued to fire, though, and took a few steps back.

From behind, the red beast craned his neck and howled. The Materia locked inside its feathery headdress sparked to life, causing a fountain of bright green light to explode on the ground around its four feet. Sheets of fire suddenly sprung up onto the specimen, causing it to stop in mid-lumber and shriek. The thing flailed its blood stump, clawed arm and tentacles wildly, screaming so loudly Barret thought the steel walls just might curdle up.

Cloud slowly rose back to his feet and gripped the side of his head to stop the room from spinning. When everything came into focus, he bent down to grab his sword and charged again. The specimen inhaled deeply, squeaked, and blew a thick cloud of green sludge. The cloud quickly spread through the entire room, sticking to the walls and hanging in the air, unmoving. As Cloud rushed forward and slashed down, he neatly cleaved the specimen in half. The two thrashing chunks quickly burned themselves into ash, leaving only the cloud behind.

Cloud took a few deep breaths to stop his heart from pounding, and instantly dropped to his knees, clutching his stomach. His guts were performing somersaults and back flips in his chest. Wincing, Cloud coughed and promptly heaved up everything he had eaten in the past two days. After which, he blacked out.

* * *

When Cloud came to, the thick gas was gone and the red beast was nudging him awake with its cold nose. "Your friends are back," it said, and sat down to lick his paws.

Cloud blinked and sat up. Tifa and Aerith were coming back up the elevator and blowing air away from their faces, wrinkling their noses. "What happened up here?" Tifa gasped. The ex-SOLDIER slowly crawled to his feet and pointed at the flaming ruins of the specimen.

"Thanks for your help," Cloud said weakly. The red beast simply nodded. "Hojo has called me 'Red XIII', a name which apparently fits." He looked back at the large 'XIII' tattoo on his right hind leg. "But you may call me whatever you wish."

Cloud nodded. "In that case, Red, I guess you should come with us." Red shrugged, and the ex-SOLDIER continued. "Barret, you and him should come with me. Aerith and Tifa can find the way out, right?" Both girls nodded, and took off.

"An' don't get caught by the Shinra!" Barret shouted after them.


	9. Shroud of the Fallen Angel

_Chapter 9: Shroud of the Fallen Angel_

"I think they were caught by the Shinra," Barret grumbled.

Cloud paced back and forth in front of the elevator on the 66th floor. Red was lying on the floor next to the chair Barret had planted himself in. The big man's leg was bobbing up and down; if he had been up, he would have been pacing, too.

"We can't be sure," the ex-SOLDIER said, stopping to look out the window. Had they already left? Maybe they were at Aerith's house, waiting for them. "We're sure to run into them. They wouldn't leave without us." Would they? Cloud was sure he was capable of escaping the Shinra Tower on his own, and both Barret and Red had proven themselves more than capable.

The elevator light flicked on, and a shrill ping signaled the arrival of the elevator on the 66th floor. Cloud turned to face it, and was more than ready to chew on Tifa for a minute or two, but his open mouth met up with a hard right hook.

Rude cracked his knuckles and stared down at Cloud. The ex-SOLDIER's world was filled with bright silver spots that danced in front of his face. "Was it fun for you?" the bald Turk asked. He wore the same dark blue suit all Turks wore, but his was neat and trimmed, right down to the carefully folded cloth in his breast pocket. Cloud thought Reno actually used his to blow his nose.

Tseng stood behind Rude, who had pulled a gun on Barret and Red. "It's hard to imagine a bunch of shit heads like you have gotten into the Shinra Tower like this," Tseng said, his voice dripping with acid. "But the tour ends here. The president is anxious to meet with you all."

* * *

Cloud and the others were led single-file up to the stairs to the top floor of the Shinra Tower, where President Shinra himself sat behind the huge steel desk that ran in a semi-circle almost across the entire room. Tifa was already in front of the desk with her hands lashed behind her back and a sour look on her face. "You got caught too, huh?" she asked, wincing.

"Where's Aerith?" Cloud snapped at the president. Mopping his bald head, President Shinra shrugged and stood up out of his seat. "In a safe place."

He shuffled around to the other side of the desk, a smug smile on his face. "She's a very special girl, you know. The last of the Ancients. It is her that will lead us to the Promised Land."

"Dream on!" Barret roared, spitting at the president. "What the hell's the Shinra gonna do when they find the Promised Land anyway?!"

Red was about to speak, but the president started instead. "The Promised Land…is the resting place of the Ancients. Or rather, the Cetra," he added, nodding a head to Red. If the crimson beast was startled in any way, he didn't show it. "That girl will lead us to the Promised Land, a land with boundless amounts of Spirit Energy."

Barret's eyes shot to the size of dinner plates. "If there's Spirit Energy," he muttered, "then…there's gotta be Mako! Good God, there's gotta be _tons_ of it!"

Turning to face the big man, President Shinra smiled and nodded, folding his hands behind his back. "Correct. And that is where Neo Midgar will be built, the pride of the Shinra!" A bright gleam lit up his eyes, and Cloud scowled. _Either he's real sure of himself, or the thought of all that Mako's made him just wacko._

"Our meeting is over," the president said, beckoning to the back of the room. Rude and Tseng shuffled AVALANCHE out of the president's office and stuffed them into the elevator. "Wait just a goddamn minute! I got a lot more to say to you!" Barret roared. But the elevator cut him off.

President Shinra watched the sleek doors close, and stuffed his hands down into his pockets. _The Promised Land…even if it is a legend, well…legends have to begin somewhere, right?_ His low, bellowing laughter filled the entire building, and he did not stop until the tears were freely flowing down his face.

* * *

Cloud was pacing again, this time in the tiny cell he and Tifa shared. She was lying on the bed, half-asleep and staring at the ceiling blankly, to keep Cloud's pacing from making her a nervous wreck. The ex-SOLDIER finally gave up, throwing his hands into the air and dropping to the floor. He sat up against the wall and let the cold steel sink into his skin. It felt good; this building was too warm. The entire city was too warm, thanks to the blanket of smog that hung over it.

"Think we can get out of here?" Tifa asked suddenly. Cloud shrugged, and leaned his head back against the wall.

In the cell next to them, Barret and Red sat staring at their reflections on the wall silently. It was the big man, though, who first broke the silence.

"Yo," he began, and Red looked up. "Aerith is an Ancient, and the real name of the Ancients is the Cetra. Is that right?" Red shrugged. "I don't know too much 'bout all that…I only heard about it in stories an' stuff. But what I do know is that I can't, hell, I won't let the Shinra take it!"

Barret jumped to his feet. "Yeah! I'm recruitin' new members for AVALANCHE! Me, Tifa, Cloud, an' Aerith!" He lowered his arms and looked down at Red. "How 'bout you?"

Sighing, Red lied back down and twitched his tail. Barret's enthusiasm fled, and he dropped back onto the floor. "You're so damn boring," the big man grumbled.

On the far side of Barret's cell, Aerith sat on her cot and played with the end of her braid. She wished sometimes that she wasn't an Ancient; or at least, the last one on the face of the earth. Always running and hiding from the Shinra. It was simply no way to live a life. She wanted to live quietly, maybe find a nice boy like Cloud and settle down. Only it seemed Cloud wasn't too fond of staying in one place for too long; she even heard him pacing next to her cell in his own.

Her mind wandered, and she began to think of Tifa. She was nice, and they had gotten along well enough. And she had known Cloud far longer than Aerith. But she also wanted to be with Cloud. Aerith didn't hate her for that; she could hardly help how she felt. It still gnawed at her, though.

Aerith sighed. Why'd she have to fall in love with the boys that caused her trouble? Cloud was a lot like Zack, in that respect. Another sigh escaped her lips; she wondered a lot where Zack was. Cloud was too much like him for comfort. Maybe she saw her old boyfriend in Cloud, and that was why she liked him so much. If that was it, she decided, she was just being silly. _You can't relive the past,_ she told herself. "Mother…what am I going to do now?"

"Aerith? Is that you?"

Aerith snapped up off her cot and pressed her ear to the wall. "Cloud? Is that you? Oh, I'm so glad you're all right!"

"Hey, I'm your bodyguard, right?" Cloud said with a chuckle. That was surprising; Aerith had never heard him laugh before. Shrugging, she shut her eyes and leaned up against the wall. "And…the deal was for one date, right?"

"Oh, I see how it is," another voice said bitterly.

Aerith nearly choked on her tongue, and she jumped back from the wall. "Tifa! Is that you?"

"_Excuse me_," Tifa said through her teeth. Aerith was glad the wall was there to hide the red that bloomed in her face. Even so, she took another step back and turned away. "Aerith, I have a question," Tifa added after clearing her throat. "Where is the Promised Land? Does it really exist?"

"I don't know for sure," Aerith said, surprised at how level her voice was. "All I know is…the Cetra are one with the Planet, speak with the Planet, and will unlock the Planet."

She was sure that produced some confused looks and befuddled blinks. "Well, what does that mean?" she heard Cloud ask. Aerith shrugged and sat back down on her cot. "I'm not sure," she whispered. "The only person who might is my mother, and she's been dead a long time. I used to speak with her spirit, in the church."

"What does she say now?" Tifa asked. The creaking springs said she had also gone back onto her flimsy bed.

"The only place I could hear her was at the church," Aerith said back. "The rest of the city is noisy, and crowded. She said to me, though…that someday, I'd get out of Midgar and find my Promised Land." After which, she was silent.

In the opposite cell, Red stared at the reflections on the wall and blinked. The cold fire in his eyes was gone, replaced by a soft, placid look. As he watched himself in the mirror, he could see the reflections of his past stare back at him. _Grandfather…_

"Grandpa, huh?" Barret said, chuckling. Red's heart leaped up into his throat. Had he been thinking aloud? He turned to Barret and tried his best to appear calm? "What's so funny?" he asked.

"Nothin'," the big man said with a smile still on his face.

Cloud listened to Barret and Red for as long as he could. Eventually, sleep overcame him.

* * *

_Help me…free me…now, wake up!_

Cloud's eyes snapped open and he nearly choked on his own heart as it flew up into his throat. After settling himself, the ex-SOLDIER got back to his feet and stretched. Hard steel floors were not meant to be slept on, he thought as he worked a cramp out of his back. Still, the breeze from the door was nice. _Wait a second, breeze? _Cloud looked to see the cell door wide open.

Moving almost completely silently, the ex-SOLDIER stalked to the doorway and peered outside. He almost lost what little food the guards had given him when saw the still-fresh corpse of the guard lying in a pile on his chair. It might as well have been a pile, anyway; he was covered in deep, bloody gouges that ran from his shoulders to his knees. A thick trail of blood slithered off down the hallway, and deeper claw marks had sliced through the steel walls like they had been warm butter.

Swallowing, Cloud ducked his head back inside and took a few deep breaths. He slowly woke Tifa, who crawled up out of her cot and poked a head outside. She barely managed to stifle the cry that almost escaped her lips.

"I'll get the other keycard," Cloud said, squatting next to the guard and removing his key ring. Tossing one to Tifa, he ran down the hallway and swiped the keycard in Barret's cell door. As soon as it slid open, Red was on his feet, snarling.

"Yo," Barret muttered sleepily, "what the hell's goin' on Cloud? What're you doin' here?"

"No time," the ex-SOLDIER said, casting a nervous glance outside. "Just come on." Shrugging, Barret got to his feet and stepped outside. Red barked at the bloody corpse in the corner and lowered himself down into a crouch, twitching his tail.

"What the hell," Barret said softly, moving over the guard. "What coulda done this?"

"I'll take the lead," Red said in a low growl, and bounded off after the trail of gore. Aerith came out of her cell with Tifa, and both girls looked at the guard, then to Cloud. "We should follow," he said, pointing down the way Red had gone. "Barret can stay here and hide the body." The big man snorted and rolled his eyes when they ran off, but wished them luck, regardless.

Red bounded down the hallway, wrinkling his nose and sneezing. What on earth could leave such a horrible stench? It smelled of death, decay, fear, and anger, all rolled up into one sharp, bitter smell. He had seen his fair share of battle, but they were nothing like this. Shinra's Third Class of SOLDIERs had been tossed aside like rag dolls, most with their necks broken on impact with the walls. Any that had survived the throw had had their guts spilled across their boots seconds before dropping dead. Blood and bodies had been smeared across the wall like a great red tapestry.

The trail banked right and went into Hojo's lower laboratory area. There, Cloud saw the "JENOVA" tube had been completely ruined. The door lay in a twisted heap halfway across the room, marked again by deep claw marks. The pink fluid that had kept Jenova in stasis was all over the floor in a bright puddle that made Cloud's head spin, mixed with the blood of the lab assistant who lay not too far from the wreckage.

Red led the others up the elevator to the lab area on the next floor, where the carnage only got worse. More of the Third Class and the Second Class commanders lie in piles at every few feet, with looks of unbelieving horror glued to their pale faces. Cloud would have bet anything that the entire building smelled like a flaming morgue.

Past the lab, the trail led upstairs to the floor beneath the president's office, where more office workers lie dead where they had stood probably not more than an hour ago. The entire building was deathly still and silent; not a thing even dared to stir. More than once, Cloud caught himself holding his breath and tensing, as if expecting a heavy blow from behind. At least he had gotten his sword back. He had found it clutched tightly in the cold dead fingers of one of the Second Class commanders on the last floor. It almost felt as if it wasn't his anymore. Cloud hated that feeling.

Shrugging it off, Cloud followed Red up the stairway and burst into the president's office with his sword halfway out of its magnetic locks. He saw President Shinra giving him a baleful glance, and that was right before he dropped his head onto the table. It was then that Cloud saw the huge, curved blade sticking out of the president's back. It wobbled in the air for a moment, and then came to a dead halt as it settled deeper into his spine.

"He's dead," Barret said breathlessly, coming up behind Cloud. "The President of Shinra, Inc. is dead."

Cloud simply gaped at the dead president, and at the sword that stuck out of his back. _It can't be him,_ he thought, even though his head was spinning and hurt like crazy. _He's dead. I saw him die._

Barret barely caught a hold of the small, fat man that rushed by from behind the president's desk, and held him tightly by the arm. Palmer squealed in the big man's tight grip and began to babble. "D-don't kill me! I got something for you! Which one of you is Cloud?"

The ex-SOLDIER turned to face Palmer, whose fat face was absolutely livid with fear. "It was him," he said, wiping his bald head. "Sephiroth!"

Cloud nearly choked on his tongue. It was impossible! Sephiroth was dead! "Oh, he's far from dead," Palmer said, shaking his head. Cloud blinked' had he been speaking aloud? "He came in here and killed the president! He said something about not letting us have the Promised Land."

"So he's a good guy, then?" Barrett asked, easing up a bit on Palmer's arm. "He's on our side."

"Not likely," Cloud croaked. "Sephiroth a good guy? No way. I've seen Sephiroth…he's not with us."

The sound of whirling helicopter blades made Palmer's head turn to the huge window in back of the office. Squealing again, he shifted out of Barret's powerful grip and fled for the doors. The big man spat and watched him go, cursing. "Damn it! I forgot about Rufus!"

Cloud turned to face Barret, who was starting to load up his gun-arm. "It's the president's no-good son of a bitch son," he growled. His face loosened out of his scowl, though, when he saw the huge sword sticking out of the president again. "Y'know, I heard stories about Sephiroth, once. I heard he was stationed somewhere far away now. Man, he didn't cry or bleed, or any of that stuff. The dude wasn't human, Cloud."

The ex-SOLDIER gazed at the long, slender blade of the Masamune for another moment, then sighed and ran outside. A landing pad had been built outside, and a helicopter was just dropping onto it when Cloud got outside. The door slid open, and a boy not much older than Cloud with a bright shock of blonde hair jumped out and pulled Palmer aside. His bright white suit was tossed about at the cuffs by the sharp rotors of the chopper blades, as was his hair, which he kept brushing out of his face. Finally, he ushered Palmer up onto the helicopter and turned to face Cloud.

"Well, he said in a soft voice, just barely heard over the chopper. "Who are all of you?"

Cloud swallowed and took a step forward. "I'm Cloud Strife, former SOLDIER First Class!"

"I'm with AVALANCHE!" Barret shouted, echoed by Tifa.

"A flower girl from the slums, Aerith said, her normally soft voice, now iron hard.

"A research specimen," Red shouted over the roar of the chopper blades.

Rufus Shinra looked over the five of them and smirked, putting his hands into his pockets. "What a crew," he muttered. "Well, I'm Rufus, the new President of Shinra, Inc."

"Yer only president 'cause your old man just died!" Barret snapped, shaking his gun-arm at the new president. Shrugging, Rufus leaned up against the concrete railing and smiled. "True. But I'm still president. I'll even let you hear my inaugural speech."

"The old man tried to control the world with money. It seemed to have been working. The populace thought that Shinra would protect them. Work at Shinra, get your pay. If a terrorist group attacks, then SOLDIER will help you. It looks perfect on the outside. But…I do things differently. I'll control the world with fear. It takes too much to do it like my old man. A little fear will control the minds of the common people. There's no reason to waste good money on them." Rufus clinched his fist and gave a short, cold laugh.

Tifa narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "He likes to make speeches…just like his father."

Cloud glared at Rufus, who smirked at the ex-SOLDIER and met him look for look. How he could be so calm at this time was beyond Cloud, and he supposed it really didn't matter. "Barret, get Aerith outta here," he said, not taking his eyes off Rufus. Barret started to contest Cloud's call, but Cloud cut him off. "There's no time, Barret! Listen! This is the real crisis for the planet! Just do what I say!"

Grumbling, Barret led Aerith and the others back inside, save for Cloud. The ex-SOLDIER and new president stared at each other for a moment before Rufus broke the silence with another chuckle. "Why do you want to fight me?" he asked, shrugging.

"You seek Sephiroth, and the Promised Land," Cloud said coldly. Rufus nodded and pursed his lips, sighing. "I see. Did you know that Sephiroth is an Ancient?"

The ex-SOLDIER blinked. An Ancient? Is that why he was trying to keep the Shinra from the Promised Land? "It doesn't matter," he said, shaking his head. "I can't let either Sephiroth or the Shinra have the Promised Land."

Rufus pulled a sawed off shotgun from inside his white blazer and whirled it on Cloud, pulling the hammer back. "I guess this means we can't become allies," he said. Cloud unsheathed his sword and snarled.

* * *

_Yeah, sorry to leave you hanging. Anyways, all comments and suggestions are appreciated, and I thank you all for reading. Hopefully, the next chapter will be up a little quicker. Real life keeps on interfering.  
_


	10. Escape from the City of Nightmares

Barret and the others tromped down the stairs and were halfway to the elevator when Tifa stopped and turned around. "I think…" she began, but stopped in mid-sentence. Whirling back to face the others, she sighed. "I have to stay here. He might need help." 

Nodding, Aerith got into the elevator and waited for Barret and Red. She silently pushed "1", and smiled at Tifa as the elevator doors closed. "Would you mind telling me what the hell that was all about?" Barret asked as they descended.

"She wants to stay," Aerith said, shrugging. "I can hardly stop her."

A sudden rain of bullets made everybody drop to the floor in a panic. Glass shattered and was flung across the small elevator, hailing down on the flattened group in a soft mist. When Barret looked up again, he saw the other elevator was carrying some huge tank on four wheels, and a gun probed about the top of the machine, searching for its lost targets. Snarling, Barret jumped to his feet and opened fire, sending a hailstorm of ammunition into the other elevator.

The tank jerked and buckled as it was hit with the flurry of bullets, but swiveled its gun to Barret and fired. The big man yelped and jumped out of the way, almost dropping on top of Red. The crimson beast avoided Barret, though, and ran to the edge of the elevator. Letting loose with a howl, Red cleared his head and reached into his materia. The fire inside exploded to life when he grasped it, causing a fountain of bright green light to fly from the ground around him. With a mighty roar, Red sent sheets of red and white fire streaming from the surface of the materia inside his headdress streaking at the tank.

Though covered in flames and spewing oil, the tank fought on. The top section blew off, revealing a mass of guns that pointed in all directions that spun around in tight circles. Without warning, all guns blazed to life and peppered the other elevator with a rapid-fire assault. Once again, everybody was forced back down to the floor to avoid being shredded by the bullets.

Red was crouched on the edge of the elevator, watching the guns fire. There was a split second where it jostled itself to reload before it could keep going. One good hit would do it in, but Red seriously doubted that even Barret was fast enough to shoot then. Sighing, Red closed his eyes and muttered a prayer.

His sharp ears whirled around when the gun pod clicked, signaling its reload, and Red sprung into action. Whirling around, he headed for the opposite end of the elevator and sprung off the glass casing. Even as Barret and Aerith shouted a protest, Red flew forward off the elevator like a blazing red streak. Teeth and claws flying, he blew through the huge metal tank on the other elevator and ripped a hole in the middle big enough for three of him to easily walk through. Skidding on his paws, he sprung up onto the tank and jumped off the gun turrets back to safety.

The gun swiveled a few more times before exploding into thousands of chunks of shrapnel. As Barret shielded his eyes from the sharp metal, he could see Red out of the corner of his eye, standing weakly on all fours and panting. _Dunno what the hell that was, but I'm glad he's on our side_, the big man thought.

"Um…guys?"

Barret looked up to see Aerith taking a few shaky steps back away from a more compact, blue fighting machine with three propellers and a maze of guns. It dropped from above and landed on the smoldering base of the first tank, spinning on its sharp bottom. With an audible click, it armed its guns and aimed at Barret and the others.

"Damn Shinra," Barret muttered with a snort. "Always makin' my life harder, aint'cha?"

* * *

Cloud took another swing at President Rufus and was again met with the shield of light that sprung into place around him. So light it must be made of silk, yet strong enough to survive a head-on impact with most anything, a well-placed Barrier was a force to be reckoned with.

Rufus chuckled and raised his shotgun to put another hole into the ex-SOLDIER. He had always considered himself a fair shot. Not a dead-eye like Scarlet, but he could hold his own. The several bloody wounds in Cloud were fair testament to that, but the ex-SOLDIER was fast; faster than he looked, especially with that huge sword. He was amazed at how the ex-SOLDIER could keep holding that thing.

Rufus' train of thought was interrupted as Cloud's sword struck the Barrier again. It trembled and chimed; that could mean it was either about to wear off, or on the verge of breaking. Either way, things would get messy. Rufus began to wish he had learned how to make Barriers himself, instead of having to rely on the device that Hojo had given him.

Snarling, Cloud took a few steps back from Rufus and hefted his sword. If there was anything he hated more than a Barrier, it was not being able to get behind it. Of course, with this roof, and the railing…

Cloud's head began to spin, and a light red veil drifted over his eyes. Somehow, he managed to find enough sense to latch his sword back onto his back and reach into his bag. Rufus raised the shotgun again and squinted; he wouldn't miss this time.

_Right between the eyes…_

Cloud wrapped his hands around a grenade and hurled it at Rufus. It exploded harmlessly against the light shield, but it was enough to make the president flinch and cover his face with his hands. That was all the ex-SOLDIER needed. Running for the edge of the tower, Cloud grabbed the railing and jumped over the edge. Using his momentum and the railing, Cloud sprung himself up and over Rufus and grasped the railing behind the president.

When the smoke cleared, the president was coughing hoarsely and waving the dust away, looking for Cloud. Did he get away? That would be like a SOLDIER. Leave when things weren't going their way.

Rufus was just about to leave when he heard the sound of steel rubbing steel behind him. He was only able to half-turn before Cloud pounced and tackled him to the ground. The shield shattered into a thousand soft wisps of light which quickly faded away into nothingness. In a rage, Rufus flailed with one hand and knocked the ex-SOLDIER's sword from his grasp.

Cloud rolled the president over and hauled him up to a half-sitting position by his collar, then cocked his arm back and swung. A sharp, cold pain tore into Rufus, followed by something warm and wet dribbling down his face.

Blindly, Rufus swung. He felt his first hit home, and a shrill howl escaped Cloud's lips. When Rufus opened his eyes, he saw the ex-SOLDIER leaning against the railing, clutching at one of the bullet wounds. Smirking, Rufus strode forward and cracked his knuckles. He hadn't had this much fun since…well, since ever.

He only made it halfway to Cloud before the ex-SOLDIER lunged. He put all of his weight into the spring and drove Rufus backwards into the steel railing. Behind the president, Cloud could see the ruins of Sector 7 that were smoldering and glowing in the night like a red beacon. It had been less than one evening, but it felt like so long ago when they left. Shaking his head, Cloud grabbed Rufus by the shirt and pulled him forward, smashing into the president's face with a head butt. Rufus clapped his hands to his face to soften the scream, and drove his knee into Cloud's side.

That made another one of the bullet wounds flare up again, and the ex-SOLDIER jumped back, gritting his teeth. Rufus waved to the helicopter that had been circling the building, and grabbed a hold of the rope ladder as it was dropped down to him by Palmer. Still smiling through the blood, he saluted Cloud as he rode off into the night.

Snorting, Cloud picked up his sword and shuffled downstairs. Tifa was waiting for him in the office, pacing nervously. When she saw him come in, she almost flung herself at him, and would have if he wasn't covered in blood.

"What happened?" she gasped. "Are you okay? Where's Rufus?"

"I couldn't finish him," he said, spitting red. Cloud sat down as the pain from the multiple buckshot wounds were starting to take their toll. He reached into his bag and pulled out one of the vials that Aerith had bought in Wall Market and doused the liquid. Sure, he may have hated Shinra, but their scientists were at the cutting edge in nearly everything, including medicine. The pain soon began to subside and the bleeding from the wounds was beginning to slow.

Cloud stood up, but what he saw out the window caused his mouth to drop. Down at ground level, it appeared that the entire Shinra military had the building surrounded. Thousands of the military police as well as SOLDIER squads were assembled around the Shinra Tower, cutting off the escape route of AVALANCHE. A chopper came into view and shined a spotlight right into his eyes. After shielding his eyes, Cloud could see that Rude and Tseng were at the controls of the machine.

"What are our orders, Tseng?" Rude asked his leader.

"Aerith is not to be harmed. The others…dead or alive…and Heidegger and Scarlet's emphasis was on dead," said Tseng. "But I'd rather capture them all alive, Rude." Tseng flipped a switch to turn on the loudspeaker on the chopper. "Listen up AVALANCHE. If you surrender now, we can guarantee your life."

Down on the ground, two Shinra MPs just couldn't believe what they were hearing. "How can the Turks say something so shameful?"

"Tell me about," said the other MP. "Let's just go in and kill them all."

Tifa was about to ask Cloud what they were going to do, but Cloud gave his answer to the Turks and Tifa, even if the former couldn't hear him. "Dying or surrendering? Either choice is shameful. I don't want your guarantee. What I want…is freedom." Cloud looked back down towards the ground and noticed the highway that paralleled the Shinra Tower. Suddenly, a light bulb went off in Cloud's mind.

"Listen Tifa, this is gonna get real complicated, so here's what I want you to do…"

* * *

Barret jumped out of the elevator as the doors slid open and headed for the exit. As soon as he burst out of the doors, he was met by a hail of gunfire from a thousand Shinra soldiers with thousands of guns. Cursing, he scrambled back inside and slammed the door shut.

"I'm sorry," Aerith said from behind. "This is entirely my fault."

"Keep quiet!" Barret snapped. "You helped Marlene…an' now it's my turn to help you."

Red sighed and cleared his throat. He looked up at Barret with one blazing red eye and said, "If you're done talking, may I suggest we find a way out of here?"

The big man grinned and shrugged. "You a cold man, you know that?" he asked. "Just like somebody else I know around here." Red licked one of his paws and didn't respond.

Tifa came barreling down the stairs, panting and waving her arms. "Barret!" she shouted. "Come on, we've got to hurry!"

Barret stomped over to Tifa and was about to say something, but she cut the big man off. "There's no time…please, just follow me!"

Tifa led the others past the Shinra sign and into the back lobby, where a flight of stairs led up to the second floor. There, Tifa saw exactly what she had been looking for. The Shinra's new pickup truck only had two wheels, but got gas mileage and was fast, for a truck. She and Aerith jumped into the cab while Barret and Red piled into the back.

"Hey," Barret said, tapping on the glass. "Where's Cloud?"

As if on cue, the sound of hot metal grinding against gears ripped through the air, and the sound of squealing tires came from the third floor above. Tifa started up the truck just as Cloud came barreling around the corner on a huge motorcycle Shinra had built specifically for SOLDIER. "We need to go up one more floor," Cloud said over the throaty growl of his bike's engine.

Tifa tried her best to avoid the bright blue Shinra sign in the lobby, but plowed right through it, followed by a wincing Cloud. The bike's sizzling pistons slammed against the stairs as he gunned the bike up the stairwell, but he paid it no attention. Cloud pulled out ahead of the truck and came to a stop, with the bike aimed straight for a window. He glanced back to Tifa and Aerith in the truck behind him, who both mouthed "You're crazy" as they had now realized just what Cloud had planned. Cloud looked back towards the window in front of him. _Yeah, maybe I am._ With that, Cloud slammed the bike into gear and poured on the gas. The motorcycle shot off like a hot chrome rocket, with the pickup truck following behind. The ex-SOLDIER took the time to cast one more look back to Tifa, and then sent the bike flying out the window.

The motorcycle sailed in the air, hanging for a moment before dropping down to the highway below. Cloud smiled grimly as he flew past the startled MPs and their commanders, never expecting AVALANCHE to make an escape like that. Cloud got back on the gas and blazed around the first turn with the pickup truck following behind. Even with all the noise, Cloud could hear Barret's faint shouting at the Shinra behind him.

Eventually, the truck pulled up level with Cloud, and Tifa waved from the driver's seat. When Cloud looked back at Barret, though, he saw the big man stand up and start to shoot. Craning his neck around, the ex-SOLDIER saw a three man squad of SOLDIERs on bikes similar to his with swords drawn. Barret was able to take one out, but the other two were gaining fast. Pulling hard on the brakes, Cloud slung his sword free and dropped back to meet them.

With one broad stroke, Cloud cleaved the front tire of one bike in half, sending both ride and rider sailing into the air. The ex-SOLDIER then rammed his bike into the other bike. The 3rd Class SOLDIER was no match for the ex-1st Class SOLDIER. Cloud blocked the thrust from the SOLDIER, was able to twist the sword out of the SOLDIER's hands followed by a few hard kicks. Screaming, the SOLDIER hit a concrete column and exploded in a brilliant flash of fire.

When Cloud looked back to see how many other SOLDIERs there were, he saw a black mass of spikes skid up against his rear tire. Smoke and sparks flew as the Shinra's light assault vehicle, nicknamed the Motor Ball by SOLDIER, sped up behind him and nearly forced Cloud off the road. Fire and steam pumped from the top of the huge machine as it raced forward, and Cloud was forced to put everything he had into pushing the motorcycle forward to meet up with the truck.

Cloud drove up next to the driver's window and tapped on the glass, poking a thumb backwards. Tifa peered into the rear-view mirror, and then shot her gaze back to behind the truck, her eyes going wide. Grabbing the stick and slamming the clutch, Tifa jerked the truck into fifth gear and shot forward.

Cursing, Cloud shot another glance backward and hefted his sword in one hand. He veered the bike to the side of the road, causing sparks to shoot off the steel guardrail as the polished chrome skidded against the railing. Easing the brake, Cloud slowly backed up until he was level with the Motor Ball. The ex-SOLDIER was now caught in between ten tons of rolling fire and steel, and being scraped across the pavement by way of the guardrail. Swallowing, Cloud shut his eyes and slammed the brakes.

Cloud felt himself almost lurch out of his seat, but when he opened his eyes, he saw the Motor Ball streaking ahead of him, and the tail end of the blue pickup truck screeching around a tight corner. Scowling, Cloud gunned the motorcycle back to life and shot forward.

The ex-SOLDIER rocketed towards the Motor Ball with the bike's steaming pistons pumping like mad while smoke poured out of the tail pipe in thick gouts. Looking down, Cloud saw the motorcycle was pushing over one hundred and fifty miles per hour, but he still wasn't close enough to the Motor Ball to hit it. That meant it was probably almost on the bumper of the truck. Gritting his teeth to bite back more ugly curses, Cloud jumped up onto the bike's seat and swung his sword in front of him.

It was hard to do on the speeding bike, but somehow, Cloud managed to find his center and reach inside his material. He got a shaky grasp on the fires that blazed inside, and ripped them from the material. A fountain of green light exploded on the ground around his bike, which quickly turned into a long, thick swath of light as the motorcycle flew along the freeway with its spell casting rider. Cloud swung his sword in two tight circles, and with a flick of his wrist, he snapped it onto his back and thrust his firsts forward.

Dozens of thin streaks of silvery-blue lightning shot from the polluted, grey-dawn sky and tore into the back end of the Motor Ball. Cloud could hear the painful sound of gears flying apart and pipes bursting as the electricity flew through the huge machine.

Again and again, Cloud threw bolts of shimmering lightning down from the sky to split the Motor Ball apart. The only thing that was keeping it going now was pure momentum. Still, it was enough to get the blue pickup truck far away from the flaming death machine. Cloud eventually dropped back down into his seat and road the rest of the way down the freeway.

In front of the Motor Ball, Tifa would have been cheering with the others if she had not been driving. Because of the design of the city, there wasn't much room for the highway, so the Shinra engineers just jammed it wherever they could. What resulted was a highway full of curves and hairpin turns. It was all Tifa could do to keep the small truck in control. _I want to know which nut decided on this design for a road,_ Tifa thought to herself. _The Shinra truly are evil._

Her train of thought came to an abrupt stop as she spotted the flashing red lights along the side of the road that signaled the drop-off of the freeway. Normally, it would be completed with a service ramp that would drop down to the ground, allowing traffic to move in and out of Midgar. Because of the military imposing marshal law however, the ramp was removed to keep people from leaving or entering the city.

Looking in the mirror, Tifa saw the Motor Ball dropping back, shooting sparks and dropping large chunks of itself alongside the road. With a soft prayer, Tifa jerked the truck into first gear and hit the brakes. Aerith flew forward and squeaked as she crashed into her seatbelt, while Barret shouted in surprise as Red flew from the back of the truck bed straight into his lap. Unbuckling her seatbelt, Tifa kicked the door open and hurried outside, shouting for the others to follow.

Aerith fumbled with her strap for a moment before finally unhitching it, while Barret and Red scrambled out of the bed and dove for cover. Tifa felt the hot wind kick up behind her as the Motor Ball flew past them in a huge, red and orange fireball that flattened the blue pickup truck before causing it to explode and flip end over end, landing in a flaming pile on the side of the road. The Motor Ball itself flew off the edge of the freeway and hung in the air for a moment before giving one final burst of steam and dropping to the ground far below.

Cloud came streaking around the corner on his bike just in time to see the huge eruption of metal and fire as the Motor Ball hit the dirt and exploded. Slamming on the brakes, Cloud swung the rear of the bike around and dragged the bike to a stop with his boots.

Jumping off the bike, Cloud walked up to Barret, who was standing at the edge of the freeway, looking down at the smoldering wreckage. "So…now what're we gonna do?" he asked, not turning away. Cloud sighed and glanced up. Dawn was just beginning to peel away at the starry night, causing a mixture of thick blue-black sky with the soft pinks and yellows of early morning and soft greens of the exhaust from the mako reactors. "Sephiroth is still alive," Cloud said. "I…have to settle the score."

"An' that'll save the planet?" Barret said, tearing his eyes away from the Motor Ball. The ex-SOLDIER didn't respond. "Awright, then…I'm goin' too," the big man added.

"I'm coming," Aerith said, coming up next to Barret. "There are a lot of things I need to find out."

"About the Ancients?" Cloud asked.

"About many things," Aerith answered cryptically.

Tifa looked down at Red, who glanced back up at her with a blank look. Turning back to the Shinra Tower, she found herself wishing she had stayed at home all those years ago, or at least, not having gone to Don Corneo's. She could have stayed, and they wouldn't be in this mess at all. She felt like she was to blame for all this; for all of Sector 7 being destroyed.

"I guess…this is goodbye, Midgar," she said softly. It seemed odd, thinking of Midgar as her home, but she felt no qualms at all about leaving the city of nightmares behind.

* * *

The sun was beginning to climb over the mountains when Cloud dropped off the service ladder and hit the ground. Barret and the others followed, each of them taking a deep breath and enjoying the fresh air. It wasn't thick and stale like the air in Midgar; it felt like you could actually breathe out here. Red spoke up first, after nudging Cloud's hand. "I'm going back to my hometown," he said. "That's as far as I travel."

"It feels strange," Aerith said, looking back at the city. "I've never liked traveling…but as long as I've got my bodyguard, it should be all right." She glanced over at Cloud and gave him a warm smile. The ex-SOLDIER looked over to Tifa, who spun around on her heels and folded her arms across her chest.

Barret picked a rock up off the ground and hurled it at the city walls. It bounced harmlessly off the thick glass that surrounded the gates, but it was the thought that counted. "Damn Shinra," he muttered. "Every group needs a leader, y'know. An' that's me!" He turned to Cloud and nodded. "That's how it is."

"I think it should be Cloud," Aerith said, shaking her head. Barret's enthusiasm deflated in a second, and it was almost visible. Still, he knew Aerith was probably right. "Fine," he grumbled, along with some curses. "If you want him ta be leader so bad, you can stay with him."

"Me, too!" Tifa said suddenly. Everybody turned to look at her, and it took a second before she realized what she had said. "I…that is, I want to go, too…with Cloud." Tifa ducked her head, hoping nobody saw the crimson that flooded her whole face.

"Heh…yeah, I though it'd be somethin' like that," Barret said with a smirk. "Besides, it's probably a good idea if we all don't go parading across the plains together. The closest town to Midgar is the village of Kalm. It's on the edge of the Midgar Plains, or rather desert these days. We'll all meet up there. C'mon, Rover, let's get a move on." If Red was insulted, he didn't show it. He and Barret were over the horizon within minutes.

"Come on," Cloud said with a sigh. "Let's go."


	11. Five Years Ago, That Fateful Day

_My God, I never imagined it would take this long to get this chapter wrote, but real life tends to get in the way at times. After not even opening the file for what seemed like months, I was finally able to pound out the rest of this chapter. Enjoy. - TF _

* * *

_Chapter XI: Five Years Ago…That Fateful Day_

Outside of Midgar, the sun cut through the early morning fog, sending it scattering into bits of fluff that rose into the sky and vanished from sight. After several miles, lush, green grass began to spring up under Cloud's worn boots, and the air was filled with the sweet scent of flowers opening up to expect an oncoming storm. The flat, rolling plains outside Midgar stretched as far as the eye could see, seemingly touching the edge of the bright blue sky at the horizon. Puffy white clouds hung lazily in the sky, hardly stirred by the soft breeze that blew in from the valley to the east. It felt good to be out of Midgar after so long, Cloud thought. He had almost forgotten what a real sky looked like after seeing the dirty, polluted skies of the dark city for so long.

Tifa inhaled deeply and smiled as the fresh scent of a storm to come filled her lungs. Looking around, she could see the very tops of Midgar's huge towers as mere dots on the edge of the plains, set against the background of a glorious stretch of snow-capped mountains behind them. The mountain range rose high into the almost clear blue sky, a testament to nature that proved nothing man could build would ever match the sheer majesty and awe-inspiring structures of the planet.

Aerith was alive; she felt more alive than she had in years. Color had returned to her normally pale face, and her bright green eyes were sparkling in the sunlight. Even the very air around her seemed sweeter than usual, and not once did Cloud look back and not see a smile on her face. _Is the planet talking to her?_ he kept thinking. _I'm glad she could finally get out of Midgar and see the world as it really is. The last of the Ancients…shouldn't be kept up in a city like Midgar; full of mako reactors and nightmares beyond belief. It even took me a while to get used to it._

Sighing, Cloud hefted his backpack up higher onto his shoulders and kept walking. The sun burned warmly overhead, casting short shadows on the soft green grass beneath the ex-SOLDIER's feet. It was a good day to be out, he thought.

Soon, the city of Midgar vanished behind them, and the smoke of chimney fires arose on the horizon. "That must be Kalm," Tifa said. "I bet Barret and Red are already waiting for us. We shouldn't keep them waiting too long."

* * *

The village of Kalm was tiny, consisting of only around ten to twelve small houses and a tiny mako reactor set in the middle. Beyond the village, more mountains jutted up out of the ground, making up the north wall of the Kalm Valley outside of town. Few people were out on the wet cobblestone streets, but the air was clean. Cloud didn't think he'd ever get used to a healthy environment, no matter how much more appealing it was. Midgar felt too much like home, and that scared him.

"We should head for the inn," the ex-SOLDIER said quickly. Marching into town, Cloud swung the doors open and walked up to the front counter. Scribbling his name into the register, the owner blinked and paled. "Ah…mister…Cloud? There are two others upstairs waiting for you. They said you'd show up soon, so…" He trailed off, and motioned for Cloud to go upstairs.

On the second floor, Cloud found Barret sitting on one of the beds, and Red lying peacefully in a sunbeam beside the window. "Sure took ya long enough," the big man grumbled. Cloud shrugged an apology, and Barret waved it away. "So, let's hear it," he said. "The whole story about you, Sephiroth, an' the planet."

Cloud started and almost fell backwards. Barret had never been this forward before. Sighing again, Cloud dropped his pack onto a bed and took a seat in one of the old wooden chairs. "No interruptions," he said flatly. Barret nodded.

"…I first met Sephiroth after the war had ended. We went on a lot of missions together, and we became friends…"

Barret stomped his foot. "You call that a friend?"

Cloud glared at the big man, who remembered his promise and quieted down. "Well, he was older than me, and he hardly ever talked about himself. Guess you could call him a war buddy. I remember once, we were sent out on one mission to my old hometown…that was five years ago…and I was sixteen…"

* * *

"Sure is raining hard," Cloud said, peering out the back of the truck. The spattering of rain made tiny thumps on the canvas covering the back of the truck as it sped along the sopping wet plains outside of Nibelheim. Water fell from the sky in great sheets of seemingly solid grey that flew against the clear plastic windows on the back of the truck, making large spatters across Cloud's face. "Hey, are you all right?" he asked, turning to one of the two MPs that were with him. The MP was hanging his head and breathing deeply with his mouth open, looking pale and worried. He managed to look up at Cloud and give him a weak smile before groaning and dropping his head again. "I wouldn't know," the young SOLDIER said. "I've never been carsick."

Cloud paced anxiously up and down the small cab of the truck, muttering. The massive sword strapped to his back was devoid of any nicks and scrapes, and its material slots had never seen anything outside of the training stuff they had given him. Cloud had wanted to be just like his hero in the stories, and shoot balls of fire from his hands while calling down lightning down from the sky.

"Hey," a deep, commanding voice suddenly said, causing Cloud to jump. In the corner, Sephiroth was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. The SOLDIER elite was dressed entirely in black; the kind of black that seemed to suck the light from the room. The only other color on him was the silver gauntlets and iron bangles he wore, his shimmering green eyes, and his flowing silver hair. Cloud never asked how or why Sephiroth wore it like that. With most things involving the Great Sephiroth, you just accepted things as how they were and didn't ask twice.

"Settle down," Sephiroth said, a bit more warmly. Cloud shrugged and gripped the hilt of his sword. "They gave me some new materia!" he said, grinning. "I just can't wait to use it." The dark man muttered something about "just like a kid", and shut his eyes again.

The hours dragged on, and the truck had made little progress in the stormy weather. The sky outside was completely black, and the rain only beat down on the struggling vehicle harder. Cloud found himself pacing, fidgeting, mumbling, and on the verge of going crazy inside the small confines of the truck bed. "Gimmie a briefing!" he said, finally. Sephiroth looked up out of his daze and blinked.

"This isn't a normal mission," he said flatly. Cloud's face went from dead to a broad grin, and he pumped his fist into the air, cheering. "All right!" When he looked back, he saw Sephiroth's confused look, and quickly calmed down. "Well, that is…when the war was over, my big chances of becoming a hero like you were over. So now, whenever there's a real tough mission, I sign up for it. Kind of like a way to prove myself, y'know?"

Sephiroth's lips curled up into a grin, and Cloud thought he chuckled a bit. "I thought you wanted a briefing," he said. Cloud shrugged. "…we're going to investigate an old mako reactor that's producing some nasty monsters in the Nibelheim area. Our mission is to eliminate the monsters and fix the problem in the reactor."

Cloud blinked. "Nibelheim? Hey, that's my hometown." Sephiroth closed his eyes and leaned back against the tarp. "Hometown, huh? I…"

The dark man was interrupted by the sound of tires squelching in the mud, and wet brakes scraping against slick rubber. Sephiroth was on his feet, uncoiling like a giant snake and up behind the driver's seat in one fluid motion. "T…there's something in the road!" the driver screamed, pointing. Sephiroth narrowed his sharp eyes and peered out into the storm, trying to pierce the thick veil of grey that covered the windshield.

A great mouth full of sharp teeth suddenly filled the entire window, followed by a brutal, ear splitting roar that reverberated painfully in Cloud's head. Scowling, Sephiroth grabbed his long, curved blade and kicked the back doors open. "That would be our monster," he growled, stepping out into the rain.

Sephiroth hefted the Masamune in one hand and strolled to the front of the van. The dragon that had planted itself in front of the vehicle roared at the dark warrior, and lumbered forward. Almost automatically, Sephiroth became rigid and unmoving in the storm with the Masamune held at eye level. When the dragon reached down to take a bite out of Sephiroth, the long blade flashed like steel lightning, severing the beast's head from its neck. With a flick of the wrist, Sephiroth shook the blood off his sword and climbed back inside the van wordlessly. Cloud slowly shut the doors and sat down next to the carsick MP, who was watching the silent SOLDIER with awe in his huge eyes.

* * *

"Sephiroth's strength us unreal," Cloud said, shrugging. "He's far more powerful in reality than any of the stories you might have heard.

"Myself, I was mesmerized by the way he fought. So smooth, so flawless…and that was the same day we got into town…"

* * *

Sephiroth stepped up to the gates of Nibelheim and looked around at the small town blankly. No more than five or six houses lined the small cul-de-sac that made up the tiny little village, powered now by the Mako reactor on top of the mountain; it had replaced the old water tower in the middle of the village long ago. One lone pickup truck sat next to the gates of town, rusted to the point of uselessness.

"So…this is your hometown?" Sephiroth asked. "Looks nice. Wish I had a place to call home."

"Uh…what about your family?" Cloud asked as he jumped out of the back of the truck. Sephiroth actually looked started for a moment, but quickly recovered and waved the question away. "My mother's name was Jenova…she died giving birth. And my father…"

At this, the dark warrior laughed a cold, bitter laugh. After years of hard battle, it seemed he had lost his ability to be warm at all. "It doesn't matter," he said. Turning around, Sephiroth looked up at the dark spires of the Nibel Mountains. A thick green and purple haze hung around the peak of one of the taller mountains, were no trees grew and the birds flocked away from in terror. "The mako smell is pretty bad here." Nodding, Cloud walked through the gates of Nibelheim and was…"

* * *

"Hold on just one damn minute!" Barret snapped. Cloud looked up from his story and glowered at the big man, who shrugged. "I remember Jenova. That's that damn headless spook livin' in the Shinra building."

"Calm down, Barret," Tifa said sternly. "You can ask questions later." Barret struggled for words, but Aerith cut him off. "It's a reunion of childhood pals!" she said, nodding to Cloud.

* * *

Cloud walked through the gates of Nibelheim, and was instantly hit with a strong sense of familiarity. Not a bit of the town had changed since he was young. The gates were still rusted, the old truck wasn't running, and the old man at the inn was watching by the window, peering curiously at the unusually large gathering of people outside. Cloud even saw the same old brown dog that sat outside by the water tower all day, looking forlorn and forgotten. Nobody knew who he belonged to; he had just wandered in one day. The town had sort of adopted him, but kept him nameless.

As soon as the last MP got out of the truck, the door to the general store flew open, and the owner, armed with a camera, dashed outside and snapped a picture of the truck. Cloud's head spun from the sudden flash, and he rubbed his eyes to clear the spots that danced in front of his face. "Hey, are you really a SOLDIER?" the man asked. "Wow! Hey, think I could get Sephiroth's picture?"

"It's dangerous," Cloud said flatly, blinking. "Better get inside and let us handle the monsters."

The man's enthusiasm visibly fled from his face as he stuffed the camera into his pocket with a sigh. "You're awfully big headed, even for working under Sephiroth," he muttered.

Cloud shrugged and turned his face to the dark warrior, who was already halfway into the inn. "We'll only need one guard tonight, so the others can get some rest. Cloud, we leave early tomorrow morning, so get some rest." He nodded to the young SOLDIER and shut the door. After a minute, though, he popped his head back out and grinned. "Oh, I almost forgot…you can go see your family and friends, if you want."

Cloud nearly cheered in the middle of the street. As soon as Sephiroth shut the door again, Cloud whirled around and…

* * *

"My mom lived in town," Cloud said with a sigh. "But it doesn't have anything to do with the story."

"Yo, I wanna hear!" Barret said. Looking around, the ex-SOLDIER saw that everybody else was nodding, even smiling. Kicking himself, Cloud continued…

* * *

Opening the door brought back another fresh batch of memories that flooded his head almost to the point of where sifting through them became painful. The smell of fresh, home cooked meals ten years gone filled his nose and made a tingle run up his back. The weight of his sword seemed like nothing after all his training, but it still seemed to press on his shoulders like a heavy burden in the small house.

She came from around the corner, wiping her hands with a damp washrag. No doubt, she thought it might have been the old man at the inn or the little Lockhart girl come to visit again, but when she saw Cloud, it seemed her jaw hit the floor the same time her towel did. Smiling, Cloud brushed a lock of bright blonde hair out of his eyes. "Hi, mom," he said…

"….Cloud, it's so good to see you again," his mother said, pulling him into the living room. "Let me get a look at you…is this a SOLDIER uniform?" She blinked in surprise as she ran her eyes up and down the sword strapped to his back, then looked back at Cloud.

"Mom, I…"

"…Are they feeding you?" she asked, taking the kettle of the stove. The strong smell of beef stew hung in the air like a warm blanked, and Cloud inhaled deeply. "Yeah," he said with a sigh, "the company takes care of me."

"You never could cook, could you?" A smile crossed her face as she…

"…My, how you've grown. I bet the girls never leave you alone."

Cloud looked up at her from his position on the bed and gave her a confused look.

"I'm worried about you," she said as she piled the last of the dishes into the sink. "There are a lot of temptations in a city like Midgar."

Cloud couldn't help but smile as she put extra emphasis on 'temptations'. "I'm fine," he said.

Shaking her head, Cloud's mom walked over to the mirror that hung next to the door and let the bun of dark blonde hair free, sending waves of hair spilling over her shoulders. Cloud always thought she was more beautiful than pretty and dad was a fool for…

"You should have an older girlfriend," she said. "One that would take care of you. I think that would be the perfect type for you."

The young SOLDIER blinked…

"…Cloud…?"

"…isn't that right, Cloud?"

"…I will always be your mother…"

* * *

"Let's stop this," Cloud said with a shiver.

* * *

Leaving home with a full stomach and promising to return the next evening, Cloud shuffled over next door to the Lockhart's house. It was far bigger than his little home, which didn't even have an upstairs floor. When Cloud stepped inside, though, he noticed that not a single soul was home. The furnace was burning, there was an open magazine on the table, and there was even a glass of half finished milk next to the refrigerator, but nobody was there. It was as if the entire place had been evacuated just before he got there.

Shrugging, Cloud shouted for Tifa and went up to the second floor. Her parent's bedroom was empty, her mother had died shortly before he left town, and the beds looked as if they hadn't been slept in for months. Tifa's own room was just as neat, except for the wall of stuffed animals that were at the head of her bed. The room also contained a private vanity, where many of Tifa's personal belongings; newspaper clippings, pictures of her family, and so on; were stuck in the mirror. There was also a letter, which caught Cloud's eye…

_Dear Tifa,_

_How are you? I just got into Midgar eight days ago. Yesterday, all of Nibelheim got together to welcome me. The only person we couldn't get a hold of was Cloud. But everyone said he wasn't really that close to us. So even if we asked, he probably wouldn't have come anyway._

_Well, enough about him._

_Midgar is really something. But to tell you the truth, I feel so behind on everything, so out of it. Even the rooms of the people in the slums are clean. Right now I'm living in the slums, but I plan to move into a really nice room, like the ones I've seen in magazines, once I make some money, but to do that, I guess I have to find a job first._

_That's right. I still haven't found a job yet. I lied to my parents and told them I found a great job with Shinra, Inc. I wonder if it's too late to go back. Sometimes I think I should have taken over my parent's store. I just made it to Midgar, but all I think about is Nibelheim._

_Hey, Tifa, is that stupid old water tower still working? Is the old man at the inn doing well? Are my parents still at the shop everyday? Have any monsters attacked? And most of all, how are you, Tifa? It feels like I haven't seen you for years. We were talking about you last night. Everyone likes you. But because everyone idolizes you, I couldn't very well stab you in the back. I always acted cool, but I was just afraid of being jilted._

_Wow, if I keep writing like this, this'll become a love letter! So I think I'll stop here. Take care; I'll write again._

_PS: Write me back, okay?_

Cloud skimmed the letter one more time, and then set it back down on the vanity. Turning around, he spotted Tifa's ancient piano that sat next to her bed. The once white keys were yellowed and chipped with age, much like the sheet music that was clinging to the piano's face. Shrugging, Cloud took one more look around the room and left Tifa's house. Still, the fact that she wasn't home dangled in the back of his head, eating at him as he walked across the small cobblestone square of Nibelheim. _Why was nobody home?_

The young SOLDIER swung open the door to the inn and tromped upstairs to find Sephiroth looking out the rear window at the back of the Shinra Mansion at the end of town. Like most of the trees around Nibelheim, the ones in back of the huge house were scraggly and looked forlorn without their leaves in the middle of spring. It made the entire town look colder and more forsaken than it already was. "Are…you okay?" Cloud asked his mentor.

Sephiroth pursed his lips and responded with a grunt. "It's strange," he began, "but I feel as if I know this place. It's almost like I've been here before."

Cloud gave the dark warrior a confused look, and peered out the window. "We start early tomorrow," Sephiroth said suddenly, making Cloud jump. "We should get to sleep. Tomorrow, before we begin, we'll meet up with the guide we hired. She's young…I hope we can count on her."

* * *

It was just past dawn when Cloud snapped his eyes open and sat up in bed. _Dammit, I'm late!_ Groaning, the young SOLDIER pulled his boots and shirt back on, strapped his sword to his back, and stepped outside.

The early morning chill bit into Cloud's skin like sharp needles, making his head spin as he yawned. Shaking his head to clear the fog that seemed to cloud his thoughts, the young SOLDIER headed for the edge of town. There, in front of the Shinra Mansion, were the two MPs, Tifa's father, the owner of the General Store, and, of course, Sephiroth.

"Late again, huh Strife" one of the MPs said to Cloud as he got closer to the group.

"Listen, Sephiroth," Tifa's father began. "If anything happens to my daughter…"

"Trust me," the dark warrior said flatly.

Cloud was about to ask what all the fuss was about when he felt someone brush past him and run up to Sephiroth. "Sorry," she muttered, as she fixed her wide brimmed sun hat. The girl's large brass earrings shone like polished gold in the crimson light of dawn, and the chains that held them in her ears jingled whenever she turned her head. "I'm Tifa," she said to the dark warrior, pushing some of her dark hair back over her shoulder. "Nice to meet you."

Cloud's bright blue eyes shot to the size of dinner plates, and he took a half-step forward, ready to protest, but all that came out was stuttering and confused gawks. As Tifa turned to face the young SOLDIER, her face lit up with excitement upon seeing Cloud again. "Y…you're the guide?" Cloud finally managed to choke out.

"Of course!" she said, her smile not budging. "I just so happen to be the number one guide in this town."

Cloud looked at her father, who simply scowled at the Shinra elite. Turning his gaze to Sephiroth, he saw the dark warrior wearing a broad grin and chuckling to himself.

"Worried?" he asked, shrugging. "It should be all right, if you protect her." Cloud gave up trying to squeeze anything else out of his throat and sighed.

"Um…Mr. Sephiroth?" a small voice said from behind Cloud. Everybody turned to see the owner of the General Store, camera in hand and a smile on his face. "Would it be too much to ask for a picture of you three? Together, I mean." He looked between Sephiroth, then Cloud, and finally Tifa, who shrugged and jumped into place next to Sephiroth. Grumbling, Cloud got next to Tifa and folded his arms menacingly.

A bright flash of light made Cloud's world dance and spin. Blinking, he managed to clear away the spots and watch the man head back to the store. "That was great!" he shouted. "I'll get you all a copy once they're developed!"

As the group began their trek up the path towards the Nibel Mountain, Tifa's father pulled Cloud to the side. "After today, stay away from my daughter."

* * *

_A mako reactor was built on top of Mt. Nibel. The cold air, the rushing winds. It made no difference…it was the same as…_

* * *

Withered. Whenever Cloud looked up at the mountains, that was all he could describe them as. The pointed, limp peaks of the Nibel Mountains looked like dried up, sun-baked fruit. The only clouds that hung around the mountains were thick ones that were tinged pink and green by the foul mako reactor that sat on top of the highest peak. Could that be why the mountains looked so dead? The reactor might as well have grabbed the once beautiful mountain range with a fist and squeezed the Mako out of them. Squeezed, and withered. That was how Cloud saw the mountains.

Almost by instinct alone, the local beasts that roamed the mountains avoided Sephiroth like the plague. Maybe it was because of the cold fire in his bright green eyes, or because they could sense the plain feeling of death and destruction that hung around the dark warrior like a cloud. Whatever it was, Cloud and the others were unmolested by the monsters of Mt. Nibel.

Halfway through the pass and spanning the gap between mountain peaks was an old rope bridge that swayed dangerously in the sharp breeze that blew up from the valley far below. Several of the rotted wood planks were missing from the middle of the bridge, but Sephiroth started across the bridge without hesitation.

Tifa fell into step right behind the dark warrior, and Cloud behind her, watching the ropes for any sign of tearing or breaking. Just as the second MP got onto the bridge, though, the sickening sound of snapping hemp split the silence that had descended onto the small group. Cloud whirled around and shouted, "Run for it!" but it was too late. The rope bridge snapped in the middle and with a muffled "Shit!" from Sephiroth, all five on the bridge dropped into the valley.

When Cloud came to, he found himself looking up at the swinging halves of the rope bridge high above. Tifa was groaning and getting up next to him, and the sounds of movement also came from around the corner. Sephiroth and the first MP came into view, but the second one was missing.

"Can we get back up to where we were?" Sephiroth asked, helping Tifa to her feet. She shrugged and looked up at the broken bridge. "These caves intertwine like anthills," she said. "Oh, and Sephiroth, we seem to be missing one person…"

The dark warrior shook his head. "It may seem cold, but we've got no time to look for him. We need to get to the reactor."

With a sigh, Tifa led Sephiroth and the others back into the mountains through a series of caves that were brilliantly colored with splashes of greens, pinks, blues, and purples. Each flash of color seemed to throb from inside the rock rather than on top of it, lighting up the cave with strobes of rainbow pulses. Sephiroth explained to a bedazzled Tifa that the colors were due to the unusually high levels of mako in the mountains. That was why the Shinra built a reactor on top of the mountain.

Past the bright cave was a small, open area full of flattened shrubs and dry, cracked ground. Cloud's boots crunched on the bones of several long dead birds that had no doubt once lived in the trees that filled this small valley long ago. Sitting in the middle of the open area on a short stone platform was a large, shimmering blue chunk of rock that sparkled and glistened in the shafts of sunlight that fell from above.

"Materia," Sephiroth said flatly as he walked up to it. An amazed Tifa brushed the blue material with her fingertips and shivered as it reached out and touched her mind in return. "It's very rare to see it in its natural state. It probably formed because of the mako pool here." There was indeed a small pond of raw mako sitting around the stone platform; Cloud found himself thinking of locker rooms and socks whenever he smelled mako.

"Hey, why is it that you can use magic when you use materia?" Cloud asked.

Sephiroth looked from the shimmering stone over to Cloud, a confused look on his face. "You're a SOLDIER, and you don't even know that?" The young SOLDIER shrugged. "Countless generations of knowledge are held inside materia," Sephiroth began. "When a person uses materia, it strengthens the spiritual bond between humans and the planet, calling up magic. Or so they say," he added with a shrug.

"Magic," Cloud muttered. "What a mysterious power."

Both Tifa and Cloud looked over at Sephiroth as the dark warrior let out a loud, hard laugh that almost choked him. After a few moments, Sephiroth thumped his chest and coughed to get some air into his lungs and grinned. "I ran into somebody once who would have gone berserk over something as small as that," he said. "A man called Hojo, who works for Shinra. He said magic was all really science, and it shouldn't even be called 'magic'. He was a walking mass of complexes."

"So, this is where the knowledge of the Ancients is kept," Tifa said dreamily.

After tearing her away from the materia, Sephiroth followed Tifa up the mountain trail back to the main path, which wound around Mt. Nibel. Sat on a small plateau underneath the withered peak of the mountain sat the squat mako reactor, always churning out mako and pumping it to the small town far below. Looking down, Cloud could see Nibelheim as little more than a handful of yellow spots on a grey base. Even the large and intimidating Shinra Mansion wasn't as big as his thumbnail anymore. It was times like this he realized how tiny his town was compared to a megalopolis like Midgar.

Before Tifa could take one step into the reactor, though, Sephiroth put a firm hand on her shoulder and hauled her back down to the bottom of the steps. She pounded on his shoulder furiously, but she may as well have been hitting a brick wall for all the good it did her. Setting her down next to the MP, Sephiroth looked far down at Tifa and shook his head. "The reactor is full of the Shinra's industrial secrets," he said coldly. "Only authorized personnel are allowed inside."

Tifa stomped her foot and pouted, but Sephiroth turned a cold shoulder and walked inside. "Take care of her," Cloud told the MP, and followed the dark warrior. Tifa gave both SOLDIERs a hard stare, but whirled around on one boot heel and sat down, pouting.

Inside the small reactor, Sephiroth was halfway down the catwalk that led to the main chamber before Cloud could get down the ladder that led to the catwalk. From across the bubbling pool of mako, Sephiroth vanished into a cloud of steam and went into the next room.

Cloud coughed through the smelly steam and blinked, getting the tears out of his eyes. When he could see again, he found himself in a room with several levels of large, tear-shaped pods with thick windows on the front, each one with a number and barcode. Thick, churning mako lapped up against the pods, and the sound of heavy machinery was coming from the room at the top of the stairs. Sephiroth was up against the door, pressing his ear up to it and squinting.

"Uh…Sephiroth?" Cloud said softly. "That's the room where that 'Jenova' thing is kept, right?"

Nodding, the dark warrior descended down the stairs again and pointed. "The valve on that pod is broken. Close it." Without another word, Sephiroth spun around and started checking the other pods. Cloud was taken a bit back by the dark warrior's bluntness, but closed the valve on the broken pod and resumed double checking the pods.

"Why did it break…?" Sephiroth muttered. Cloud looked up to see Sephiroth hauling himself up to a window and peering inside. A dark, low scowl crossed his face as he dropped back down to the floor. "So, Hojo…this is what you've been up to. But, even this will never put you on the same level as Professor Gast."

Cloud's confused look finally caught Sephiroth's eye. The dark warrior sighed, and pointed to the window wordlessly. Cloud jumped up and pulled himself level with the window…barely managing to hold back a gasp.

Floating inside the pod, inside the raw mako, was a large, thick skinned humanoid that bobbed lifelessly. The empty eye sockets burned holes into Cloud's cool exterior, and the dark grin on its fleshy face made a shiver run up the young SOLDIER's back.

Cloud's numbed fingers finally gave way, and the young SOLDIER dropped down to the steel floor, shaking. "Wh…what is that…?" he stammered.

Sephiroth sighed again and shook his head. "Normal members of SOLDIER are people who have been showered with mako. You're different from the average human, but still human. But what are they? They're humans…and they've been exposed to a far more dangerous amount of mako than you."

"Normal SOLDIERs?" Cloud asked, getting back to his feet. "You mean, you're different?"

Almost loud enough to hear, something clicked inside Sephiroth's head. A horrible, burning sensation ripped through his brain and made his temples throb. Slowly, the dark warrior reached down to his waist and pulled the Masamune from its sheath. Cloud jumped back as Sephiroth raised the sword high above his head, and then brought it back down onto one of the pods. A deep, clean groove was etched into the thick steel, cut by the folded edge of Sephiroth's powerful sword.

"Am I…different?" the dark warrior shouted, swinging again. "Different from all of these things?!" He whirled on Cloud, a glare of pure fury and cold terror stuck to his face and burning in his eyes. "You saw them! All of them…they were humans!"

Cloud choked on his tongue and shook his head. "No way!" he shouted. "That's impossible…"

Sephiroth lowered his gaze. "I've always thought…that since I was little, I was different from all the other kids. But, not like this…"

The dark warrior's speech was interrupted by the sound of something hard banging on steel. Sephiroth pushed Cloud of the pod chamber as a hiss of boiling steam and a shrill cry of pain flew from one of the pods. The steel catch burst open, allowing one of the mako born monsters to tumble out onto the cold floor of the mako reactor. It gave one final cry, reaching out to the pod from which it came, cursing its freedom…shivered once, and gave a choking gasp before dying in a pool of sizzling mako.

* * *

_Am I…human?_

_I didn't quite understand what Sephiroth was saying at the time. I was even more surprised by the fact that the Shinra were producing monsters._

"Who would have thought the mako reactors held such secrets," Aerith said softly.

"Damn Shinra!" Barret snapped. "The more I head, the more I hate 'em!"

Cloud sighed and cleared his throat. "Tifa was waiting right outside…"

* * *

The next morning, Cloud awoke in the inn to find Sephiroth's bed empty. He looked out the window and saw what must have been everybody in town standing in front of the Shinra Mansion. Throwing his sword onto his back, Cloud rushed outside and ran to the front gates of the huge house.

"Sephiroth's inside," one of the MPs said to Cloud. "Been in there since last night. We all thought maybe you could go in and get him to come out…"

The young SOLDIER was gone before the blue clad Shinra officer could finish. He threw open the front gates and pushed the doors open, and was greeted by a thick cloud of dust and cobwebs. The strong smell of formaldehyde and sulfur filled his nose and mouth as he stepped inside and shut the doors behind him.

Cloud found a dust covered light switch and flicked it on, causing the chandelier to flicker and spark, and sending spiders scurrying for safer ground. Swallowing nervously, Cloud slowly ascended the curved stairway up to the second floor, his boots making heavy creaking sounds that echoed through the huge, empty house, and even more so in his own head. Looking back, he saw his thick footprints as they marred the once still dust that had settled in the long abandoned house.

On the second floor, light streamed in from the huge bay windows that were set all along the back wall. Trowels of dead flowers sat outside on rickety balconies, and the scraggly dead trees that were in back rapped at the windows gently in the soft breeze outside. The entire house was looming…and cold. It was a warm spring day outside, but everything seemed cold inside. Shivering, Cloud went into the small storage room and went to the corner. A column made of bricks went from the floor up through the ceiling, and had loose bricks in several places. Removing one of the bricks caused the wall to open up, revealing a hidden stairway inside the column that jutted out from the wall and spiraled down to the basement that had been carved straight from the bedrock underneath the mansion.

The bones of several animals and humanoids littered the basement hallway, and bats clung to the low ceiling, sleeping peacefully. Rats the size of basketballs scurried for cover when Cloud passed by, but the young SOLDIER tried his best not to be distracted by the morbid sights of the basement.

At the end of the hallway was a thin wooden door, and Cloud could hear somebody pacing behind it. Opening the door a crack, Cloud saw Sephiroth walking back and forth between a long hallway of bookshelves, and two ancient stasis tubes. A pile of books was on the desk in front of the tubes, most of them open and covered in cobwebs.

"X Month, X Day, X Year…the signing and approval of mako reactor number one," Sephiroth muttered. "X Month, X Day, X Year…Professor Gast discovers an organism that is believed to be a frozen corpse of an Ancient. He names this find, 'Jenova'…"

Cloud slowly opened the door and followed Sephiroth down the hallway of books. Slowly, the dark warrior put the book he had been reading back up on a shelf and lowered his head. "My mother's name is Jenova…the Jenova Project…is it all just a coincidence?" He raised his head again and stared at the ceiling. "Professor Gast…why didn't you tell me anything? Why did you have to die?"

Cloud was about to speak, but Sephiroth cut him off. "Let me be alone," he said softly. Never had any more emotion been cast into the dark warrior's tone, and without a word, Cloud crept back out of the laboratory.

* * *

_Sephiroth continued to read, as if possessed by something. Day after day, and night after night, not coming out at all and not once did the light in the basement go out…_

* * *

It was on one particularly dark evening that Cloud was jerked from a restless slumber by the sounds of pounding coming from the basement. Only half awake, Cloud swung his sword onto his back and hurried out of the bedroom in the Shinra Mansion. He tore down the dark hallway, lit only by the tiny sliver of white moonlight that streamed in from outside. Pushing the secret door in and hurrying down the stairs, Cloud found the bats in a rather unusual frenzy about something.

Bursting inside the lab, Cloud heard a deep, cold laughter coming from down the hallway. Slowly turning to the left and fearing what he might find, Cloud went down the hallway to find Sephiroth sitting alone in the darkness, chuckling.

"Who is it?!" he snapped. Somehow, he recognized Cloud even in the dim light, and smiled. "It's you…you traitor."

"Don't bother asking," Sephiroth said quickly, jumping to his feet. "Let me tell you the story of the Ancients…or rather, the Cetra, as they called themselves. They were an itinerant race, who would move, settle the planet, and then continue on." The sound of rustling papers told Cloud that Sephiroth was slowly advancing on him from the right. "But those that disliked the journey appeared. They took what the planet gave to them, without giving one whit in return! Those…were your ancestors. And all that is left of the Cetra now is in these reports!"

"Sephiroth…" Cloud began, but the dark warrior cut him off.

"Several years ago, a man named Professor Gast found a frozen organism in the north. He called it 'Jenova', and started the Jenova Project. The object of this program was to recreate people with the powers of the Ancients…no, of the Cetra." Cloud felt Sephiroth's dark cape brush past his shoulder like liquid night, causing the young SOLDIER to shiver. Cloud turned to face Sephiroth, who looked back at him with those piercing green eyes and lowered his head a bit. "I am the one that was produced."

Cloud's sharp blue eyes shot wide, and he took a half step back, shaking. "P…produced?" he gasped. "But…"

"Professor Gast, genius scientist and founder of the Jenova Project, produced me," Sephiroth said coldly. He spun around and started down the hallway.

"Where are you going?" Cloud asked, after finding his voice again. Sephiroth's broad shoulders began to shake, and a dark laugh escaped his lips.

"I'm going to see my mother."

With that, Sephiroth rose off the ground and flew out the door with Cloud in hot pursuit. The bats were in an absolute panic, and fled the Shinra Mansion out of the chimney, screaming into the night.

As Cloud dashed up the stairs, he felt a sudden blast of hot air sink down into the hidden stairway; causing sweat to erupt all over his skin and soak his uniform. Rushing upstairs, he saw the entire house illuminated with flashes of red and orange light that streamed in from the front windows. Screaming, Cloud fled outside and saw the entire village of Nibelheim in flames. Fires danced form roof to roof, gathering in the streets and leveling houses to the ground. Several charred bodies were strewn about the streets, and even more had been slit open by a huge blade…by Sephiroth's blade.

Running down into the square, he saw a tall, burly traveler with a blue cape huddled over a fallen man and shaking his head. "Hey, are you still sane?" he shouted to Cloud. "Go check the house over there! I'll look for more survivors!" Pulling his cape around him, the man dashed inside the General Store. Looking to his right, Cloud saw his own house go up in a thick ball of fire and smoke. A blast of hot air and flames shot out form the front door, causing Cloud to crash to the ground in a heap.

Slowly, Cloud crawled back to his feet and wiped the tears from his eyes. _This is too terrible…Sephiroth, this is too terrible…_ His head was spinning from the heat, and smoke was beginning to cling to his uniform. Turning around in response to several screams, Cloud saw Sephiroth on the roof of the store as he cut down two more of the villagers.

The flames roared behind Sephiroth as he slowly brought his gaze up from the dribbling pools of blood that were gathering on the roof of the store and glared at Cloud. A slow, easy smile crossed his lips as the fires flickered in his blank green eyes. Still smiling, Sephiroth slowly whirled around and vanished into the fires. It didn't matter though…Cloud knew where he was going.

* * *

Cloud dashed out of the cave outside of the mako reactor at the top of the mountain and came to a stop. From a distance, he could see Tifa, who was lying over the prone body of her father. A thick trail of blood could be traced back to the gaping wound in the man's side.

"Sephiroth…" Tifa muttered coldly. "Sephiroth did this to you, didn't he? The Shinra…mako reactors…Sephiroth…SOLDIER…_I hate them all!"_ Roaring, Tifa picked up Sephiroth's discarded sword and ran into the reactor. Cloud tried to shout at her to stop, but to no avail. Cloud quickly rushed into the reactor after her.

In the pod room, Sephiroth stood at the top of the stairs, knocking on the door. "Mother, it's me," he said softly. "Please, open the door and let me in."

"You murderer!" Tifa shouted, running up the stairs. She raised the sword high above her head, and was about to bring it down onto Sephiroth when the dark warrior whirled around and caught her wrist in his iron grip. Smirking, Sephiroth twisted, and a sick snapping sound split the air. Tifa dropped the Masamune and stepped back, clutching at her wrist. When she looked up again, she could see the blade coming back down on top of her, and she saw no more.

Cloud rushed in, and found Tifa in a spray of blood as she flew backwards, bouncing down the stairs, and leaving pools of blood behind her. She hit the last step with a meaty thud, and laid still. Sephiroth turned around, opened the door, and stepped inside.

Snarling, Cloud slowly picked Tifa up off the ground and carried her to the side. "You…promised…" she said softly. "You'd come…when I was in trouble…" Without a word, Cloud backed away and ran up the stairs.

Sephiroth was at the bottom of a long, thick cable that ran from the platform he was standing on to the large figurehead of a woman at the back of the reactor. Thousands of cables and pipes ran from where her arms should be and were connected to the rear wall. More pipes and tubes went the length of the ceiling, no doubt to where the many pods were. "I've got a great idea, Mother," the dark warrior said, smiling warmly. "Let's find the Promised Land together…"

"_Sephiroth!!"_

The dark warrior scowled, but did not need to turn around to know it was Cloud. "Sephiroth, what are you doing?!" the young SOLDIER snapped.

Sephiroth's scowl slowly melted into a smile again, as a low, throaty chuckle escaped his lips. "Ha ha…you ignorant fools are back for more. With her superior knowledge and magic, Mother was destined to rule the planet."

"But they…" Sephiroth said softly as he began to ascend the pipe to the figurehead. "Those horrible creatures are trying to take the planet from Mother." He slowly wrapped his fingers around the figurehead and pulled. "But I'm here now…so don't worry. Everything will be fine…"

Sephiroth pulled with every ounce of muscle in his massive body, and tore the figurehead out of the wall. Red fluids spilled from the empty eyes and mouth of the female form, but Sephiroth cast it aside. His gazed turned back to the thick glass tube that suddenly sprayed hot steam and lit up with bright white emergency lights. There, standing inside a tube, was the creature called Jenova. Her leathery wings were folded around her shoulders, and a blank stare was cast on her face beneath the golden helmet she wore. Tubes and pipes ran almost all over her body, pumping fluids and juices of all sorts to the outside pods that fed the creatures inside.

"Sephiroth…" Cloud choked. "This is horrible. What about my sadness? The sadness of losing my family? It's the same as your sadness!"

The dark warrior raised his arms to the sky and laughed. "What have I to be sad about?!" he roared. "I am the chosen one! In my veins courses the blood of the Ancients! I am one of the rightful heirs to this planet. And I have been chosen to take this planet back from you stupid people."

Cloud fought back the tears that stung his eyes as he pulled his sword free from its sheath, losing himself in the soft sound of steel caressing steel. "I trusted you," he said shakily. "No, you're not the Sephiroth I used to know!"

Sephiroth pulled the Masamune from its sheath like steel lightning and stood against the tube of Jenova. Cloud hefted his sword in both hands, rubbing the thick leather handle as his hands slipped on the sweat that soaked through his gloves…

* * *

"…and that's the end of my story," Cloud said, shrugging.

"Wait just a damn minute!" Barret snapped, shaking his fists. "Ain't there any more?!" Cloud muttered something about not remembering and sighed.

Aerith swallowed to steady her voice and stood up from the bed she had been sitting on. "Official reports say that Sephiroth is dead. But Shinra, Inc. owns the paper, so you can't rely on that information."

"In terms of skill, I couldn't have killed him," Cloud said.

The entire group was silent for a moment. Outside, the late evening sun had already reached well past its high point and was beginning to touch the peaks of the mountains to the west. "Well, now I know what we gotta do!" Barret said suddenly. "We gotta get to the Promised Land before the Shinra or Sephiroth do! Otherwise, we'll all be screwed. Right, Cloud?" The ex-SOLDIER simply shrugged, and Barret cursed to himself as he ran over to the stairs. "Y'all just let me handle this! 'Cause I'm goin', goin', gone!" With that, he rushed down the stairs.

"Cloud…" Tifa said softly, touching the ex-SOLDIER's shoulder. "Was I…hurt very badly when Sephiroth cut me?"

Cloud sighed and hung his head. "Real bad…I thought you were a goner."

"Sephiroth," Aerith began, "could be the same as me. Sephiroth, Jenova, the Ancients, and myself…I have to find out." The three looked at each other for a moment, then turned around and followed Barret downstairs.

"What a fascinating story," Red said to himself. He slowly got back up out of his sunbeam and stretched, giving a large yawn. Shaking his head, he walked downstairs after Cloud and the others.

"…said they saw a guy in black moving west," Cloud was saying to the others. "It's probably Sephiroth. We should follow him before he gets too far." Nodding, Barret opened the door for Red, waved to Cloud, and hurried off into the valley.

Cloud sighed, and looked out at the lush green valley outside of town. The sun was burning low in the sky, and the very fringes of the east sky over Midgar were beginning to turn orange. From here, the city didn't look so overbearing…or so menacing. Cloud felt as if a great weight had suddenly been lifted off his shoulders as he looked south at the stretch of mountains.

"Come on," he said, smiling a bit. "Let's go save the world."


	12. The World on a Chocobo

_Chapter XII: The World on a Chocobo_

The flat, rolling plains soon gave way to the deep, cool Kalm Valley, bordered on the north and south by a tall chain of snow capped mountains. The sun was beginning to touch the tops of the mountains, casting long shadows behind Cloud and the others. Soon, the entire valley would be bathed in a sharp red glow from the setting sun, mixed with the soft pinks and oranges that would glow from above, showing the fine line between majestic sunsets and clear, starry nights. Already in the east, the faintest hint of night could be seen, and the first few bright stars were starting to make an appearance on the horizon. Even the large, near full moon was hanging low in the sky, hiding behind the mountain range.

_Our first night out of Midgar, _Cloud thought with a sigh. _I didn't think we'd ever come this far. I thought for sure, at one time or another, the Shinra would be the death of us all._ This time, he was more than glad to be wrong.

As the mountains began to dip lower and lower, the sky was now a dark, rich red that filled almost the entire sky. Behind them, the twinkling stars were being blotted out by oncoming storm clouds. No doubt, there was a huge thunderstorm shaking Midgar to its core right now. The storm would sweep over Kalm by dawn tomorrow, and hit Cloud and the others that afternoon. Hopefully, they could find the Chocobo Ranch before the storm broke over them. A chocobo wouldn't be cheap, but it would greatly speed up travel. They might even manage to catch up to Sephiroth before he got to Junon.

Off in the distance, Cloud could hear the faint warbling of chocobos echo across the empty air. Mu holes were almost at every step, most of them full of angry mus that spat puddles of hot water. Herds of wild elfadunks lumbered across the tall, grassy plains, trumpeting loudly in the still silence of the grasslands and constantly searching for water.

"I think I see the Chocobo Ranch," Tifa said, pointing east. The very top of a large, white barn could be seen against the sun over the next hill. Nodding, Cloud started off over the hill.

* * *

Choco Bill's Chocobo Ranch was a family owned business that had prospered for generations. The large white barn with the crude chocobo painted on the front took up a large part of the farm, and the fresh smell of newly cut grass and greens wafted from the open double doors. In front of the barn was the chocobo pen, where four wild chocobos were prancing about on their tall, skinny legs, warking at each other and scratching at the ground. Off to the side was a small house, with a long trail of smoke pouring out of the chimney. A well sat in the front yard, full of clear spring water.

Cloud's memory flashed back to the chocobo training he had gotten all those years ago. Chocobos themselves were seven to eight feet tall, and covered in bright yellow feathers. Almost all of them had either sparkling blue or dark almond eyes, and made a "wark" sound whenever they spoke. Their long, skinny legs were bent backwards, making them rather large yellow birds. "Big damn chickens," Barret might have said.

Inside the small house, Cloud found a short, balding man with a black cap on, pouring over several stacks of papers. Notes were being scribbled down, and some ugly curses came from the table. When Choco Bill heard Cloud come in, though, his mood lightened almost immediately, and he greeted the strangers with a warm smile. "Well, what can I do ya for? Thinkin' about crossing the marshes?"

The ex-SOLDIER cocked his head and gave Choco Bill a confused look. "Well…yeah, I guess so. Why?"

"Cause you'll need a chocobo to outrun the Midgar Zolom!" Choco Bill said, chuckling. He shuffled over to a small cupboard and pulled out a newspaper clipping that showed a picture of what looked like an impossibly huge snake hovering over an elfadunk. Its fangs were said to be six feet long, and its bite was instant death. Even worse, the Zolom could conjure up a frighteningly large amount of flames from its hood and release it in the form of a fireball which researchers have called "Beta".

Cloud got halfway through the article before Choco Bill snatched the paper back and stuffed it into his pocket. "My son, Choco Billy, is in the barn. He'll help you find some chocobos."

Shrugging, Cloud led the others inside the large barn. The smell of fresh greens and hay were even stronger inside than outside, and the sun cast its rosy red glow in through the windows, giving the barn little light. Choco Billy and his sister, Chloe, were just starting to turn on the lanterns when Cloud came in.

"You lookin' for a chocobo?" Billy asked. "Well, you old folks are outta luck!"

Cloud blinked. _Old folks?_

"Those chocobos out there are for somebody else," Billy said. "If you want one, you should go out and catch 'em. I can sell you some Chocobo Lure Materia for…oh, shall we say, two thousand gil?"

"What?!" Cloud snapped. "That's insane! We'd be able to rent a boat from Bone Village and sail to Junon for cheaper than that!"

Billy shrugged. "Well, if that's how you feel…"

"No, wait!" Tifa said suddenly.

* * *

"I can't believe you actually shelled out money for this rock," Cloud grumbled. His legs were burning and cramped from squatting down in the wet grass for so long, but he refused to go anywhere if the seat of his pants were wet. The purple Chocobo Lure Materia had barely managed to flicker once in the several hours they had bought it, and no chocobos had even come close to where they were waiting. Tifa was kneeling down next to Cloud, there was no chance she was going to squat in that miniskirt when _he_ was around, and holding onto a long rope attached to a bundle of Mimet Greens, a delicacy even for chocobos in captivity. She shrugged, and nudged Aerith, who was next to her and almost asleep on her feet. Maybe Cloud and Tifa were used to long, sleepless nights, but then again, not everybody could be an ex-SOLIDER or in AVALANCHE, she thought bitterly, though it was hard to get the words together through the thick fog that clouded her thoughts.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Tifa said softly. "Besides, I got the best greens money could buy. Just give it some more time.

* * *

Several long, painfully boring hours later, Aerith was snoozing peacefully on the grass. Tifa was close to joining her, but Cloud sat with his face buried in his knees, muttering to himself. _So much for fast travel, _he thought bitterly. He could almost see Sephiroth roaring with laughter at him.

A low rustling brought Cloud's head back down to earth. Snapping his head up, the ex-SOLDIER saw a tall, gangly shape roaming around in the darkness. The feathery shadow bobbed up to the greens at the end of the rope and sniffed curiously. It pecked at the rope, but eventually gave up and swallowed the greens whole, rope and all.

Cloud sprang to his feet and grabbed a hold of the other end of the rope. The chocobo warbled in surprise and jumped back, still munching. As Cloud drew closer, though, the chocobo backed up a few steps, and eventually broke into a full-out run. Cloud yelped in surprise and followed, still holding onto the rope. Had he been any closer, the chocobo might have just ripped his arms from their sockets.

Through the chill night, the chocobo tried to chew the tough rope that Cloud was barely managing to hold on to. Snarling, the ex-SOLDIER shook his huge sword off his back and managed to get his second wind. Mu holes seemed to spring up under his feet, and more than once, Cloud tumbled to the ground in a cloud of dust. Dragged across the plains by the chocobo, Cloud tried to turn over onto his back so he could get a good look at the bird.

Instead, he looked up and saw an unusually large mu pop out of its hole and squawk at him. The mu reared back and spat steaming hot water at Cloud, causing the ex-SOLDIER to duck his head and let the water splash on his hair and run down his back. When he looked up again, he saw the look of terror on the mu as the ex-SOLDIER plowed through the mu hole and picked up the tiny beast.

Still being dragged by the chocobo, Cloud slowly began to pull himself up the rope and gain some ground on the fleeing bird. When he had gotten halfway up the rope, the ex-SOLDIER used his hips to bounce himself back up and start skidding across the damp grass on his knees. Closing his eyes and swallowing hard, Cloud pulled on the rope and used the chocobo for leverage as he pulled himself back to his feet.

Battered and bleeding, Cloud continued the not so merry chase through the darkness with a screaming mu clinging to his shoulders and spitting hot water everywhere. Though his knees were shredded and his legs were burning, Cloud gritted his teeth and dug his heels into the ground. The chocobo warked a screech and pumped its legs faster, lowering its head and hanging its tongue out of its beak.

Still, Cloud refused to give up. He pulled back on the rope that was still inside the chocobo's mouth, causing the bird's neck to snap backwards. Warking furiously, the bird tumbled backwards and crashed into a still speeding Cloud. Both bird and ex-SOLDIER went flying head over heels back the way they had come a good fifteen feet before losing momentum and landing in a tangled heap. With one final spray of water, the mu fled back to its hole and vanished.

Groaning, Cloud pushed the bird off him and crawled to his feet. Warbling happily, the chocobo jumped to its feet and nuzzled Cloud lovingly. The ex-SOLDIER made a choked curse and tried to push the huge bird away, but it was no use. The chocobo seemed to be enamored with him.

"Let's get back to the others," Cloud muttered, jumping onto the chocobo's back. Warking, the chocobo hopped back to where Tifa and Aerith were sleeping in a pile, totally unaware of what had just happened. Cloud nudged the chocobo, which bent down and nipped at Tifa's ear.

Tifa cursed under her breath and sat up, blinking and rubbing her eyes. "Cloud?" she yawned. "What was that for?" After stretching, she looked up into the bright beady eyes of the chocobo, which warked happily and smiled. Tifa started and scrambled back, now fully awake and breathing heavily. Cloud couldn't help but laugh.

The ex-SOLDIER's chuckles awoke a sleeping Aerith, who stirred for a moment before pushing herself up to her elbows and yawning. She popped her eyes open when she heard the chocobo wark down at her, and broke out into a grin. Aerith sprang to her feet and wrapped her arms around the chocobo's neck, giggling non stop as the chocobo warked and warbled.

"I'm glad _somebody_ is having such a good time," Tifa muttered bitterly as she crawled to her feet. She then noticed the bright purple Chocobo Lure Cloud was carrying, which was now flaring almost to a whitish pink in the dim light of near dawn. "Is that the chocobo we're going to use to cross the marshes?"

Cloud shrugged. "I'm not gonna go through all that again," he said. "If we don't use this one to cross the marshes, we might as well just go around."

Sighing, Tifa grabbed a hold of Cloud's arm and pulled herself up behind him. Aerith jumped up behind Tifa and set her staff lengthwise across her knees. Cloud grabbed a hold of the chocobo's shoulder and gave it a sharp kick with his heels. Warking happily, the chocobo sped off into the gloom.

* * *

It was well into the morning when the steady beat of the chocobo's hard feet against the soft grass turned into a sickening squelch when it hit the marshes. Clumps of weeds reaching Cloud's knees sprouted up out of the ground, and the marsh was littered with dead trees, most of them toppled over with deep grooves in the trunks. Tifa had fallen asleep on Cloud's shoulder, and Aerith had nodded off shortly after that. Both of them were snoozing peacefully and ignoring the weeds as they tickled their legs. 

Cloud blinked and shook his head, keeping the fuzzy feeling in his eyes out of mind. He was due for a long rest himself, and it seemed like every moment had to be carefully thought out. Thinking was also blocked by a thick fog, and he seemed distant from himself; separated, as if moving his hands were the result of somebody else moving them for him. He had to sleep before he passed out on the chocobo, and steer them to who knows where.

From the north, the storm rolled lazily around the mountains surrounding the marsh and began to close in on the swamp. Thunder boomed ominously behind Cloud, and silvery forks of lightning shot down from the sky, striking the marsh and setting dead, dry trees alight with tongues of red and orange flames. Looking up, Cloud saw the thick gray clouds gather overhead, and with a massive crash of thunder, the sky opened up and let the rain come in cold, gray sheets. The chocobo skittered nervously at the sound of the pouring rain and booming thunder, but warbled softly and kept running.

As the marshes slowly receded, the storm seemed to increase in its intensity. No wonder; the mountains curved around to the far west shore of the continent and come to a bowl where the Mythril Caves were. No doubt, the storm had gathered here, blocked by the mountains, and was now settled here. It might rain here for days.

Cloud gently shook Tifa, who awoke with a groan and looked around, blinking. Giving a jaw cracking yawn and a stretch, she roused Aerith and hopped off the chocobo. "Where are we?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"The Mythril Caves," Cloud said flatly, dismounting. He gave Aerith a hand off the large bird, then gave it a final pat on the head before setting it loose. Warking happily and nipping Cloud's ear, the chocobo ran off back into the storm.

A sudden scream from Aerith made Cloud whirl around in the soft grass and pull his sword free in one fluid motion. He took two great strides to plant himself in front of Aerith and gripped the hilt of his sword tightly. Looking around, he saw nothing but the storm and the edge of the marshes, until Aerith pointed and stifled another scream.

Impaled at the throat on a tall, dead tree was a huge, black snake. Its smooth scales shimmered in the flashes of lightning behind it, and the rainwater caused a trickle of blood tainted mud to pool into several puddles at the roots of the tree. The Midgar Zolom's mouth was dangling open uselessly, both fangs snapped in half and lying on the ground, half buried in the mud. Green venom was still spraying from the hollow tubes inside the teeth, making a sizzling sound when the liquid hit the ground, sending a strong, sulfurous stink into the air.

"Did Sephiroth…do this?" Tifa gasped.

Cloud scowled and sheathed his sword. "Only Sephiroth is that strong," he said bitterly. He stared up at the grizzly sight for a long moment before taking Aerith by the shoulder and helping her into the Mythril Caves.

Shuddering, Tifa followed Cloud into the caves and did not look back.


End file.
